TROADES: OR THE Royal Captives.  
A TRAGEDY.  
Written Originally in Latin, By LUCIUS ANNAEUS SENECA, The PHILOSOPHER.  
ENGLISHED By EDWARD SHERBURNE, Esq With ANNOTATIONS.  
LONDON, Printed by Anne Godbid, and john Playford, for Samuel Carr, at the Kings-Head in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1679.   

TO THE READER.  
IF the Reflection upon other Misfortunes, may afford at any time Diversion, or Improvement, by minding us of the Signal Vicissitudes of Humane Affairs; these Tragical Scenes, which we now offer to public view, (exhibiting a serious, yet withal, delightful Representation, of one of the most splendid Calamities that Antiquity hath transmitted to Posterity) may peradventure be looked upon as no unpleasing Entertainment.  
The Poem, as to its Subject, wants nothing of Grandeur to ennoble it, nor, as to its Composition, of Ingenuity: Having gained by the joint Suffrage of the most knowing Critics of this latter Age (Lipsius, Delrius, Scaliger, and Heinsius) the Title of The Divine Troades. And one of the most Eminent Modern Masters of Dramatic Poesy among us, Mr. Dryden, in his Essay upon that Subject, hath declared it to be the Master Piece of Seneca; especially that Scene therein, where Ulysses is seeking for Astyanax to kill him. There (says he) you have the Tenderness of a Mother so represented in Andromache, that it raises Compassion to a high Degree in the Reader, and bears the nearest Resemblance of any thing in the Ancient Tragedies, to the excellent Scenes of Passion in Shakespeare, or in Fletcher.  
If in this our Version, those commendable Graces of the Original be not utterly lost, the candid Reader will find something therein, which happily, he may not dislike.  
For the better clearing of the obscurer places in the Poem, there are added some Mythological, Historical, and Topographical Notes; not such (I must confess) as may fully answer the expectation of the Critically Learned, yet such (if I mistake not) as may serve, in some Measure, to satisfy the ingenious Curiosity of the less knowing Reader.   

ARGUMENT.  
THE Greeks after ten Years War, having taken and ruined the City of Troy, were hindered from returning home by cross Winds. The Ghost of Achilles appearing denies any possibility of returning, until they sacrifice to his Ashes Polyxena, the Daughter of Priam and Hecuba, in treating about whose Nuptials he was treacherously slain. Agamemnon out of kindness to Polyxena, denies to have her sacrificed. This begets a hot Dispute and Contest between Agamemnon and Pyrrhus, which Calchas at length decides, by declaring, That not only Polyxena, but Astyanax likewise, (Son of Hector and Andromache) were both to be slain ere they could hope for favourable Winds. In pursuance of which prophetical Decree, the one was by Ulysses thrown headlong from the Scaean Tower; and the other, habited like a Grecian Bride, sacrificed by Pyrrhus at his Father's Monument.   


Persons represented in the Tragedy.  
Hecuba, Queen of Troy.  
Chorus, of Trojan Ladies.  
Talthibius, a Grecian Priest.  
Agamemnon, King, and General of the Grecians.  
Calchas, a Grecian Prophet.  
Helena.  
Pyrrhus, Son of Achilles.  
Andromache, Hector's Widow.  
An Old Trojan. Ulysses.  
Astyanax, Son of Hector and Andromache.  
Polyxena, Daughter of Priam and Hecuba, Mute.  
Nuncius.   
THE SCENE, The Ruins of TROY.   

TROADES.  

ACT I.  

SCENE I.  Enter Hecuba. 

Who trust in Thrones, in proud Escurials reign,  
Nor fear the 
a Easy Gods.] As Seneca here calls them, Leves Deos, (which we render easy, that is, soon turned, and wavering;) so juvenal calls them faciles: Claudian, in 2. in Ruffian. instabiles Deos, & lubrica Numina, in these Verses▪ 

Desinat elatis quisquam confidere rebus,  
Instabilésque Deos & lubrica Numina discat.   Than which nothing can come nearer to the sense and meaning of our Author. Gronovius yet will not have this Epithet to be, by Seneca, applied or appropriated to the superior Deities, but to second Causes working under them, that is, to Fortune and Chance— Dii leves (says he) fortuna inconstans & mutabilis.  Easy Gods, possessed with vain  
Credulity of a still Prosperous State,  
Me let him look on, and Thee Troy! By Fate  
A greater Document was never shown  
On what a slippery Height Pride stands! O'erthrown  
Is 
b Asia's strong Support] Not to be understood in its largest Extent, as taken for the (then) Third Part of the World, (by Geographers called Asia Major) but of so much as was comprised under the Name of Asia Minor, containing all that Tract of Land, which the Turks (at this day) call Anatolia, divided into four Parts, of which the greatest, towards the West and the Aegean Sea (more properly called Anatolia) hath in it the Countries of Bithyn●…, Paphlagonia, Mysia, Phrygia, Lydia, Aeolis, jonia, Caria, and the greatest part of Galatia. That towards the North and the Euxine Sea (called at present Amasia, and by the barbarous People Rum) comprehends Pontus, Cappadocia, and the residue of Galatia. The third and Southerly Part (now called Caramania, by Ortelius, Cottomanidi●…) lying along the Mediterranean Sea, contains the several Provinces of Cilicia, Pamphylia, and Lycaonia. The fourth and Easterly Part, which is stretched as far as Euphrates, (and, according to Baudrand, in Ferrarius's Lexicon, at this day called Aladuli) contains all that Tract of Land, by the Ancients called Armenia Minor. Over all which, and some part likewise of Asia Major, Priam was Lord Paramount: Whence may be collected the Greatness of his Dominions.  Asia's strong Support, of 
c Of Godlike Hands th'egregious Labour.] The Town was first built by Dardanu●…, and called Dardania; afterwards, from Tros, Troj●…; then from Ilus, who much beautified and enlarged it, called Ilium: But the Walls were afterwards, in the time of Laomedon, raised by the hired Labour of Neptune and Apollo, as Homer first, and from him most of the Ancient Poets have reported, or rather fabled. The Origin of which Fiction, according to Eustathiu●…, in 1. Odyss. sprung from hence, That Laomedon intending, for the greater security of his Regal City, to encompass the same with strong Walls, made use, towards the building of them, of the Treasure dedicated to Apollo and Neptune. With whom Services, in 2. Aeneid. accords, where he says, That Laomedon, having vowed a certain Sum of Money to be appropriated to the Sacrifices in honour of the forementioned Deities, was constrained, upon an invasion of the Mysians, his Enemies, to divert and employ the same in raising Walls for the Defence of his City. Whence those Gods are said to have immured Troy. Eustathius gives yet another Allegory of the Fable, which is this: The Poets (says he) attribute to the Walls of Troy, by way of excellence, what is requisite and necessary to all manner of Masonry, which hath need of Neptune, or Moisture, to cement the Materials, (Stones or Brick●…) and of Apollo, or the Heat of the Sun, to dry and harden the Work.  Godlike Hands  
Th' egregious Labour; under whose Commands  
He who cold 
d Seven-mouthed Tanais.] Though Seneca here gives to Tanais seven Mouths, or outlets, yet none of the ancient Greek Authors do the like. Strabo mentions two only, which open into the Palus Meotis, distant 60 Stadia one from the other. Ptolemy and Pliny allow no more. Albertus Campensis (as cited by Stuckius, in Schol. ad Periplum Arrian. in Pont. Eux.) affirms them to be three; Niger, five; But the two mentioned by Strabo, Ptolemy, and Pliny, seem to be, if not the only, the chief. Delrius conceives Seneca here makes Hecuba to apply to Tanais what is proper to Danubius, or Ister, by way of greater Decorum, as being a Woman, and ignorant of Geographical exactness. But the Error doubtless is Seneca's own, who, elsewhere, in his Natural Questions, confounds Danubius with Tanais. Danubius (says he) Sarmaticos impetus cohibens, & Europam Asiámque disterminans. For 'tis not Danubius, but Tanais, divides Europe from Asia. And this was a common Error among the Romans, as is partly hinted at by Acron, upon Horace, and observed by the Learned Dr. Is. Vossius, in his Notes upon Scylax Cariandens.  seven-mouthed Tanais drinks, once bore  
Confederate Arms; and he who does adore  
The Rising Sun, where Tigris warm Streams stain  
Their Waters in the 
e The Erithraean Main.] Here again Delrius' pretended Decorum must excuse Hecuba and Seneca too. For Tigris falls into the Persian Gulf, not into the Erithraean, or Red Sea. Some, by rubenti freto, in the Original, would not have the Red Sea, properly so called, to be here meant, but the Sea made ruddy by the Morning Light, and the Sun's Rising Beams; which Interpretation yet, I conceive, will hardly pass without some grains of allowance.  Erithraean Main;  
And she whose Realms the wandering Scythians bound,  
Who beats with widowed Troops the Pontic Ground.   

spoiled by the Sword, now her own Ruins Weight  
Bears 
f Pergamus.] Pergamos, Pergamus, Pergamum, & Pergamon, was properly the Castle or Citadel of Troy, as Acropolis or Cecropia of Athens, Byrsa of Carthage, Cadmea to Thebes, and the Capitol to Rome. See (besides Servius, in Virgil, Aeneid. 2.) Bochart. in Canaan. l. 2. c. 10. And this part of Troy was that more especially, which Apollo and Neptune are said to have immured and fortified; according to Apollodorus Bibl. l. 2.  Pergamus; Her towers which glisterens late  
With their fired Buildings fallen: All, All's o'erturned  
In Flames; 
g Assaracus.] Delrius (and Farnaby following him) makes him the Son of Ilus, but falsely; for he was not Son, but Brother to Ilus, according to his Genealogy recorded by Apollodorus, in Biblioth. l. 3. and Colon in his 12th Narration. Tros the Son of Erichthonius, and Grandchild of Dardanus, by Callirrhoe the Daughter of Scammander, begot Ilus, Assaracus, and Ganymed. Assaracus, with his Father Tros. governed Dardania, and, by Hieromnene, the Daughter of Simo●…, begot Cap●…s; He, by Themis, the Daughter of Ilus, Anckises; He, by Venus, Aeneas; Qui Tro●…nos Nepotes in Latino's transtulit; whence Assaraci Proles, and Assaraci Domus, in Vigil, by way of flattery to Augustus, and the Iui●…n Family.  Assaracus his Palace burned.  
Nor Flames the Victor's greedy Hands prevent,  
But while yet burning, Troy's for Pillage rent.  
Smoak in Waves rising takes Heaven's Sight away,  
And black-burnt Cinders smeer the Face of Day.  
Measuring with greedy Eye Troy's long sought spoil  
The Victor stands, and now his Ten Years Toil  
Forgives; astonished at her Ruins, He yet  
Scarce thinks it vincible, though won he see it.  
The Dardan Wealth Greek Soldiers bear away;  
Nor can, a thousand Ships contain the Prey.   

To Witness here I call the Adverse Powers!  
And 
* Priam.  Thou, once Ruler of the Phrygian towers,  
Beneath the Ruins of thy Empire laid  
My Country's Ashes! and thy 
* Hector.  Dearer Shade,  
Who standing, Ilium stood. Ye lesser Ghosts,  
My children's numerous Souls! What ever Cross  
Hath fallen, what Ills the inspired Maid foretold,  

h The God belief forbidding.] Apollo having tempted Cassandra to yield to his wanton desires, she made him a seeming promise, provided he would bestow upon her the gift of Prophecy: Which the God having granted her, she denied to make good her promise. Whereupon Apollo not being able to recall what he had given her, added to it this curse, that though she Prophesied never so truly, she should not be believed. Hence that of Propertius, l. 3. Certa loquor, sed nulla sides.—  (The God belief forbidding) those of Old  
Saw pregnant Hecuba; nor held my Peace,  
Before Cassandra 
i Prophetess.] She reflects upon the Prophetic Dream she had, when with Child of Paris, which imported that she was brought to bed of a Firebrand that would set all Troy on Flame: Of which Apollodorus, l. 3. Ovid. in Epist. Parid. and others, Whence Paris, by Lycophron is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, a Firebrand; to which in the following Verses she alludes, where she says, — With my Brands you Burn.  a vain Prophetess.  
Not crafty Ithacus, nor Diomedes,  
Nor treacherous Sinon, through your Buildings Spread  
These Flames; These Fires are mine; and with my Brands  
You Burn. But why lamenting thus Troy's Ruins, Stands  
Too long-lived Age? Here Wretch! look here, On These  
(Troy's an Old Grief) more fresh Calamities.  
I saw (O cruel fact!) the Old King slain;  
And, a worse Crime, the sacred Altars stain  

k Then armed Ajax dared.] A axe Oileus, in the Temple of Minerva, whither Cassandra fled for Refuge, ravished her before the Sacred Palladium, or Image of the Goddess, which is said to have turned its Eves up toward the Roof of the Temple, in abhorrence of his villainous Act; as the Scholiast of Homer in Iliad V. and Lycophron, tell us.  Then armed Ajax dared. When with Hands wreathed  
In's Hair, his Head reversing, Pyrrhus sheathed  
In a deep Wound his cursed Blade; which struck  
Up to the Hilts, when the King willing took;  
Drawn forth, his Aged Throat scarce reeked with Blood.  
Whom not the sense of his extreme Age, could  
From so abhorred a Murder once restrain,  
Nor present Gods, nor yet 
l Nor yet Jove's Sacred Fane.] The Temple of jupiter Hercaus, at whose Altar Priam was slain; which he here calls Sacrum Regri, that is, the Sacrarium (says Scaliger) ubi inaugurandi Reges in auspicabantur. A Fane (says Asconius Paedianus in ●…. in Verr.) est religiosissimum Templum, unde fata petuntur. There is a difference between Fanum and Delubrum: Fanum being a Temple appropriate to one single Deity; Delubrum. a Place, where there were many Chapels dedicated to several Gods. Vide Do ●…iss. Ger. Io. Voss. 〈◊〉. Ling. Lat.  joves' Sacred Fane,  
The Glory once of this now leveled State.  
He to so many Prince's 
m To so many Prince's Father.] Apollodorus reckons them up thus: The Sons by Arisba, his first Wife, Aesacus; by Hecuba, his second Wife, Daughter of Dimantes, (or, as some will, Cisseus, as others, of Sangarius and Metope) Hector, Paris, Deiphobus, Helenus', Pam●…ones, Polites, Antiphus, Hipponous, Polydorus, Troilus. And by other Wives, Melanippus, Gorgythion, Philaem●…n, Hippothous, Glaucus, Agathon, Chersidamas, 〈◊〉, Hippodamas, Mestor, Atas, Doryclus, Lycaon, Dryops, Bias, Chromius, Astygonus, Telestas, Evander, Cebriones, Mellus, Archemachus, Laodocus, Echephron, Idomeneus, Hyperion, Ascanius, Democoon, Arr●…etas, Deioptes, Clonjus, Echemon, Hypirichus, Aegeoneus, Lysithous, and Polymedon. The Daughters, by Hecuba, Ilione, (Maxima Natarum Priami) Creusa, Laodice, Cassandra, Polyxena. By other Wives, Medusa, Medesicasta, Lysimache, Aristodame. A goodly Number! Of whom we might have spared the particular nomination, were it not that these Notes are chiefly intended for the satisfaction of the newly-initiated into these Delphian Mysteries, to whom haply this kind of Poetical Heraldry may not be altogether unpleasing.  Father late,  
Now wants a Sepulchre, 
n Funeral Fire.] So Manilius, l. 4. — Priami●…sque in littore Truncus, Cui nec Troja rogus— Which makes me believe Seneca was not unacquainted with Manilius his Writings, whom not only in this, but in several other places, he seems to have imitated.  and Funeral Fire,  
His Troy in Flames. Nor can All This heavens' Ire  
Appease. To Lords, lo●… Priam's Daughters by  
The 
o By the Urn.] It was the Custom among the Greeks and Romans, to draw their Lots out of an Urn. The Lots were made of round Balls of Clay, on which the Names or Marks of those that were concerned were impressed, and cast into an Urn, whence that of Horace, Sat. 1. l. 2. Cervius iratus leges minitatur & Urnam. This Urn was by the Greeks called Hydria, and by the Romans likewise Situla, and Sitella, from its form. And this kind of Sortition was threefold, Divisoria, (which is that here meant) Consultoria, and Divinatoria. In allusion to this Custom of the Ancients, is that Fiction of the Poets touching the Distribution of humane Destiny, as to Life and Death, which they will have to be dispensed by this kind of Sortition. Whence that of Horace, speaking of the Living, 

Omne capax movet urna nomen. And,  
Omnium versatur urna,  
Seriùs aut ocyùs sors exitura.   And Virgil, lib. 6. of the Dead, 〈◊〉 Minos urnam movet— In confirmation of which Heathenish Opinion, I think it not amiss here to add what I find in Sponius his Appendix to his Antiquities and Curiosities of Lions, lately published, where he gives us the Sculp of an ancient Relic, being a small brazen Image of Imarmene, or Destiny, placed upon an Urn of the same Metal, having under one Foot a Globe, representing the World, and in her Hand a Hydria, or vtula, as it were the Fatal Urn of Humanity. A like Statue Levinus Torrentius reports himself (in his Comment upon that Place of Horace before cited) to have seen at Rome. in the Garden of Cardinal Caesi, in which was one of the Parcaes, standing with one Foot upon a Wheel, and holding in her Hands two Lots, or Scrowls, as drawn from this Lottery of Destiny, and underneath this word, FATIS.  Urn are given. Whom, a scorned Prize, shall I  
Attend? Some one may his Wife Hector's make,  
Some 
p Some Helenus'.] Who was Helenus his first Wife is not certainly known; (for it is that which is here meant) his second Wife was Andromache, whom Pyrrhus, at his death, bequeathed to him with the Kingdom of Epirus. Touching which, see Pausanias, and the Conjecture of Delrius upon this Place.  Helenus', some may 
q Some may Antenor's take.] Theano was Wife to Antenor, of whom Servius (in 1. Aeneid.) says, the was Venerabilis inter Trojanos Foemina. She is mentioned by Homer and Triphiodorus.  Antenor's take:  
Perhaps some one thy Bed, Cassandra, seeks;  
I'm only a feared Lot to All the Greeks. Cease you my Captive Troops! Your Plaints forbear!  
Beat with your Hands your Breasts, with Cries the Air,  
And Troy's sad Obsequies perform: Now round  
Ide, that dire Judge's Fatal Seat, resound.   CHORUS Of Captive Trojan Ladies. 

No rude Crew uninjured to Tears  
Bid you to mourn: Successive Years  
Can witness, this we've never ceased  
To do, since first the Phrygian Guest  

r Amyclae.] A City of Laconia, one of the Hundred with which that Region was once beautified, built by Amyclas, the Son of Lacedemon, (says Stephanus de Urbibus) called likewise anciently Lima, distant 20 Stadia from Sparta, to the Seaward, the most famous in all Laconia, for the Temple of Apollo. In the time of Pausanias but a small Town, having been twice before that destroyed, first by Teleclus, the Son of Archelaus, afterwards by the Dorians; what is left of it being at this day called Vordonia, or Vordona, according to Ortelius, from the Authority of Niger. There was another Amycla in Italy, between Gaeta and Terracina, seated on the Seashore, and giving its Name to the Bay anciently called Mare Amyclanum, (at this day, Golso di Gaeta, and, according to Sa●…felicius in Ortelius, Mar di Sp●…rlungs) built by the Companions of Castor and Poll●…, 〈◊〉, and lost by the Silence of its Inhabitants, which gave rise to the Proverb, Amyclas perdidit silentium. The Reason whereof see in Servius upon Virgil, lib. 10. and others.  Amyclae reached, and 
s Cybel's Pine.] That is, the Ship wherein Paris sailed to Greece, whose Materials were cut from Mount Ida, which was dedicated to the Goddess Cybele, or from the Mountain Cybele, or Cybela, in Phrygia, whence the Goddess Rhea herself was so called. Steph●… de Urb. makes it a City and a Temple in Phrygia, which gave that Name to the Goddess. But Pinedo, in his late published Observations upon that Author, conceives, that instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Stephanus, it ought rather to be read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Which his Conjecture he strengthens from the Authority of 〈◊〉, lib. 12. where it is said. That Rhea was called Dindymene, from the Mountain Dindymus, as Cybele from Cybela: This Mountain being likewise taken notice of by Ovid, Fast●…r. lib. 4. where he mentions together, Dindymon & Cybelen, & 〈◊〉 fontibus Idam.  Cybel's Pine  
Did plow blue Neptune's foaming Brine.   

Ten times have Snows crowned Ida's Head,  
Barred for the Funerals of our Dead.  
Ten times the Mower's Hand hath shorn,  
With fear, the tufted Fields of Corn,  
Yet no Day void of Miseries;  
New Matter still new Grief supplies.   

On to our Plaints, and as We weep,  
Do Thou, O wretched Queen, 
t Time keep with thy advanced Hand.] He reflects upon the Custom of the Ancients, among whom, in their Lamentations for the Dead, (which was performed by Women, hired to sing their Naniae, or Lug●…bria Carmina) there was one whom the Romans called Prafica, the Greeks, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, who did Ordinare planctus, and, as Festu●… says, Dabat cateris plangendi Modum, directing the others by her Voice and Hand, to keep due Order, Time, and Decorum, in their several Parts of the sad and solemn Office, which was performed both by Vocal and Instrumental Music. Of which, see more in Kirkmannus and Meursius, de Funeribu●…, and (if you please) in Cuperu●…, Observationum, lib. 1. c. 1. The Method of this mournful Solemnity, Seneca hath here exactly observed, by making Hecuba, as it were, the Pr●…fica to the rest: This Cborus seeming to have been acted, not according to the ordinary, but Musical Pronunciation, like that which at this day the Italians call Recitative, and which they continue through entire Dramas and Operas, even to disgust; as is well observed by Monsieur Hedelin, in his Pratique du Theatre. l. 2. p. 147.  Time keep  
With thy advanced Hand: Whilst We,  
Skilled in our Parts, do follow Thee.   Hecuba. 

You faithful Consorts of our Woe  
Unbind your Tresses: Let your Hair  
About your sad Necks loosely flow,  
Powdered with Troy's warm Ashes: Bare  
Your Arms; your Vestures, slackly tied  
Beneath your naked Bosoms, slide  
Down to your Wastes. For whose Bed dressed  
Vail'st Thou, O Captive, Shame! thy Breast?  
A looser Zone your Garments bind!  
Your Cries with frequent strokes be joined!  
Hands pressed t'assail! Ay, now you please,  
Thus habited! Now Troades  
I know you all: Again renew  
Your mournful Plaints, and strive t'outdo  
Th'Expressions common Sorrows vent,  
'Tis Hector whom We now lament!   CHORUS. 


v Our Locks o●…t torn.] It was customary among the Ancients, for Women, in mourning for the Dead, to tear their Hair. Of which, instances are every where to be met with, in the Greek and Latin Poets; practised likewise by Men. Hence the example of Achilles upon the Death of Pratroclus, and of Agamemnon in Homer, and in Actius the Tragedian, as cited by Cicero, Tuscul. 3. Sci●…dens dolore identidem intonsam comam. Upon which Bion the Philosopher is, by Cicero, introduced, as scoffing at that foolish practice, quasi calvitio feror levaretur. See Kirkman, and Meurs. De funeribus.  Our Locks oft torn to wail the Dead,  
See! We have all unfilleted,  
And 'bout our shoulders loosely thrown;  
Upon our Heads warm 
x Ashes strown.] This likewise was frequent in the funeral Ceremonies, among the ancient Greeks and Romans, as well as among the jews; of which the forecited Authors afford sufficient testimonies.  Ashes strown.   Hecuba. 

Fill then your Hands; From Troy this yet  
We lawfully may take; and let  
From your devested Shoulders slide,  
Your Garments, down on either side.  
Now 
y Bared Bosoms call for blows.] 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or beating of the Breast, was one of the most usual expressions of funeral sorrow, and proper to the Praeficae, from whom the rest of the Mourners received their Cuckoe, and the manner and measure of their Lamentation; which here Hecuba prescribes, and is answered by the Chorus, in the following Verses, in all the various and sad expressions of funeral deplorements. Which, as Seneca here, so Cicero in 3. Tuscul. reckons up thus, Pedores, Muliebres Lacerationes, Genarum, pectoris, Feminum, capitis percutiones, and calls them, varia et detestabilia genera agendi. For by the XII. Tables these kinds of undecent bewailings where forbidden.  bared Bosoms call for Blows.  
Now Sorrow All thy Powers disclose.  
Rhaetean Shores with Plaints resound,  
And Echo the sad Cries rebound:  
Nor, as she's wont, ingeminate  
The last of Words, but iterate  
Troy's Plaints entire; that All the Main  
And All the heavens' may ring again.   

Now let remorseless Hands infest  
With sounding strokes each suffering Breast,  
W''re not with usual stripes content;  
'Tis Hector whom We now lament.   CHORUS. 

For Thee our Arms We beat, and Blows  
On bleeding Shoulders thus impose.  
For Thee our Heads these Strokes do bear,  
Our nursing Breasts for Thee We tear.  
The Wounds which since thy Death remain  
Yet green, now freshly bleed again.  
Thy Country's strength! Fate's Remora!  
The tired Phrygians Only stay.  
Troy's Rampart! who upheld'st Her towers  
Ten Years against Assailing Powers.  
With Thee she fell; One Day 
z A Crave to Hector and his Country gave.] From hence Ausonius' borrowed the Epitaph he has bestowed on Hector, in the following Distich. 

Hectoris hic iumulus, cum quo sua Troja sepulta est,  
Conduntur pariter quae periere simul.   

This Hector's Tomb is, and his Troy's as well;  
Together lie they, who together fell.    a Grave  
To Hector and his Country gave.   Hecuba. 

Turn now your Plaints; Let Priam too  
Be wept for: Hector hath his Due.   CHORUS. 

Receive our Tears 
a Twice captived King.] Priam was twice made Captive, first by Telamonius and Peleus, Sons of Aeacus, in revenge of his Father Laomedon's breach of Faith; afterwards by Agamemnon, and Pyrrhus, the Son of Achilles; by whom slain. Of which, Apollodorus, and Hyginus, de Fabulis.  twice captived King!  
Thee Reigning, Fates no Cross did bring  
Single on Troy; twice did she feel  

b Twice Herculean Shafts.] Once by Hercules himself, afterward, by Philoctetes to whom Hercules bequeathed his envenomed Shafts, without which Troy (as the Fates had ordered it) could not have been taken; as Pindar, Lycophron, Sophocles, Apollodorus, and Hyginus, declare.  Herculean Shafts, twice Grecian Steel.  
When after All the Tragic Falls  
Of Hecuba's Race; and Funerals  
Of Princely Sons; thyself in fine  
Didst close their Tragedies with thine.  
And to 
c To great Jove a Victim.] Being slain at the Altar of jupiter Hercaeus, as is before noted. Quintus Calaber, Lib. 13. is the only Author who makes mention of Priam's being slain by Pyrrhus, before an Altar of Mercury's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as it is commonly read, perhaps by Mistake for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Pausanias, in Phoci. reports, from the Authority of the Poet Lesches, who wrote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (Ilii Devastationem) that he was not slain before any Altar, but that Neoptolemus by chance encountering him, at the Gate of his Palace, there slew him.  great jove, a Victim slain,  
Troy's shores thy 
d Thy Headless Trunk.] He alludes to that of Virgil, — jacet ingens littore tr●…cus. Upon which place Servius notes, That, according to the tradition of some of the Ancients, Priam, being taken Prisoner in his own Palace, was thence, by Pyrrhus, dragged to his Father's Monument, on the Sigaan shore, where having slain him, he cut off his Head, which he caused to be fixed upon a Pike, or Lance, and carrie●… about by the Soldiers. By whom likewise (as Pompo●… Sabinus adds) his headless Corpse was barbarously dragged up and down. H●…c finù Priami fatorum.—  Headless Trunk sustain.   Hecuba. 

Your Tears on other Subjects spend,  
Ye Ilian Dames, my Priam's End  
Is not to be lamented. All  
Deceased Priam Happy call.  
He to th' Infernal Shades went free,  
Not thralled in Grecian Slavery.  
He ne'er th' Atrides saw, He never  
The false Ulysses knew, nor ever  
Shall 
e Bow his Neck.] This shows the manner how Captives were ordered, in the triumphal Processions of the Ancients; which Prudentius, l. 2. Contra Symmac, has thus briefly described, 

— Currus summo miramur in arcu  
Quadrijugos, stantésque Duces in curribus altis,  
Sub pedibúsque Ducum Captivos, poplite flexo,  
Ad juga depressos, masibúsque in terga retortis. etc.   And may serve to explain both these and the following Verses. Who would further be satisfied, as to the particular Descriptions of the ancient Triumphs, may consult Appian, in his Lybick History; Plutarch, in the life of Aemilius; josephus, in his seventh Book of the jewish Wars; and Zonaras, Annal. l. 2. besides Pancirollus, and his Commentator Salmuib, Alexander ab Alexandro, and Tiraquel upon him, Panvinius, Cuichardus, who have expressly written upon this Subject.  Bow his Captived Neck, a Prize  
In their Triumphed Victories.  
Not shall his Hands, which late sustained  
A sceptre, be behind Him chained,  
Nor in Gold Fetters manacled  
Following the Victor's Carr, be led  
In Pomp through proud Mycenae.   CHORUS. 

All  
Deceased Priam happy call;  

f Attended at his latest Fate.] This perhaps was written by Seneca, in a flattering compliance with Nero, who, by Xiphilinus, is reported to have often declared Priam the happiest of Men, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for that he saw his Country and his Kingdom destroyed with himself. The like sentiment is said to have been owned by that other Monster of Mankind, Tiberius, as Suetonius and Dion. Cassius' report of him. But happily Seneca, in this, may rather imitate Ovid, who (Metamorph. 13.) thus makes Hecuba to speak: 

— O Priam! I  
May call thee happy, after ruined Troy,  
Happy in death; Thou seest not this sad fate,  
Thou lost'st thy life together with thy state.   Mr. Sandy's.  Attended at his latest Fate  
With the whole Ruin of his State.  
Who now in the 
g In the Elysian Groves delightful Shades.] Where these Elysian Fields were, is not agreed upon by the Ancient Poets, some placing them in the Orb of the Moon, some in the Milky way, or Circulus lacteus. Others in the Fort●…ate, Atlantish, or British Islands; Herodotus and Duris, in Egypt; Virgil and Lycophron, in Greece, not far from Thebes, or in Arcadia: some in India. Strabo describes them to have been in Hispania Boetica, or in Estramadura. Wherever they were, this is certain, the Fable sprung (says Delrius in Hercul. fur. ad verse. 743.) from the sacred story of Paradise: Or, if you will take Bochartus his Word, from some of the pleasant Discoveries of the Phoenicians (and as he thinks) in B●…tica, in whose Language (being a Dialect of the Hebrew) Al●…z, signifies Latari & exultare; Aliz, Laetus; Alizuth, Exultatio, whence Elysium's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, A being changed into E, as Enakim for Anakim, Edessa for Adessa, etc. Hence the Elysian Fields seem to be taken for a Place of Pleasure and Gladness: To which Virgil alludes, 

— Exinde per amplum  
Mittimur Elysium, & pauci l●…ta arva tenemus.   And elsewhere, 

Devenere locos latos, & amoena vireta,  
Fortunatorum nemorum sedesque beatas.   See Bochartus in Canaan. l. 1. c. 34.  Elysian Groves  
Delightful shades securely roves,  
And 'mong the 
h Pious Ghosts makes quest for Hector.] This is not said without reflecting upon the Opinion of the Ancients touching Hector; for Lycophron affirms, that Hector was designed after Death for the Islands of the Blessed, for his exemplary Piety, in reverencing and frequently Sacrificing to the Gods, while Living.  Pious Ghosts makes Quest  
For Hector. Happy Priam!" Blessed  
" No less is He  
" Who e'er he be,  
" Who falling in Wars bloody strife,  
" Sees All things perish with his Life.     

ACT II.  

SCENE I.  

Talthibius, and  
Chorus of old Trojans.   Talthibius. 

HOw 
i How long in Port etc.] The Greeks in their first Expedition against Troy were detained in Port Aulis, by the anger of offended Diana, who could not be appeased, but by the sacrifice of Iphigenia, Agamemnon's Daughter; and upon their return retarded till they made satisfaction to the Ghost of incensed Achilles, by sacrificing at his Tomb Polyxena, the Daughter of Priam and Hecuba.  long in Port the Greeks still wind-bound are!  
When War they seek, or for their Homes prepare!   CHORUS. 

The Cause declare them and their Fleet detains,  
What God it is that their Return restrains.   Talthibius. 

Amazement strikes my Soul; a trembling Cold  
Palsies my Joints. Prodigious Truths when told  
Are hardly credited; yet these, these Eyes  
Were Witnesses: And now the Sun's uprise  
New gilt the Mountain Tops, and Eastern Light  
Had clearly vanquished the whole Host of Night;  
When on a sudden 
k The shaken ground.] This seems to be no less Philosophically than Poetically written. For according to the Mysterious Doctrine of the Egyptians and Chaldeans, the appearance of Heroes was thus properly to be ushered: Of which, Iambli●…bus, de Mysterijs Aegyptiorum (now lately revived by the Aesculapian industry of my Learned and Honoured Friend, Dr. Thomas Gale) thus writes; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, ●…c. Heroibus adventantibus, plaga quadam Terrae commoventur, & circumsonant fragores, etc.  the sore-shaken Ground,  
Breathed from its Centre 
l Bellowing Sound.] He points at the particular kind of Earthquake, which, from the noise it makes, is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, seu mugiens. Of which Aristotle, in Meteorolog. l. 2. thus renders the cause. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. Before the Earthquake there comes a sound, in regard the subtle Spirit which makes it, struggling against the solid or hollow Bodies, and various Figures of the subterranean Caverns, is wont to render various notes or sounds; so that sometimes, the Earth (as the Writers of Prodigies affirm) seems 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to bellow.  a strange bellowing Sound:  
Woods bowed their Heads, the sacred Groves with loud  
Cracks rung, like Thunder breaking through a Cloud;  
Stones from cleft Ida's Quarries fell: Nor shook  
The Earth alone; The Sea, with Terror struck,  
Th' Approach of her Achilles felt, and laid  
Her swelling Waves. Th' Earth yawning then displayed  
Her Immense Caves, and from the Depths of Night  
Opened a passage to Aetherial Light:  
The Tomb disburd'ning, whence the Ghost arose  
Of great Achilles; Such when 
m Thracian Foes.] The first exploit of Achilles was in Mysia, where he encountered and wounded Telephus, who denied him and his Forces passage towards the Siege Of Troy: of which more in the next Scene.  Thracian Foes  
(The Prelude of thy Fates, Troy!) he o'erthrew,  
And the white haired 
n Neptunian Cycnus slew.] Cycnus was the Son of Neptune, whom Achilles, at his first arrival before Troy, slew, although he were invulnerable all over, by strangling him. See Ovid, Metam. l. 12. Tzetzes upon Lycophron makes him invulnerable all but his Head, where he received his mortal wound, by the cast of a massy Stone, as Palaephatus reports. He is here called Neptunian, to distinguish him from others of the same Name; for there were five so called famous in Poetic Story. The first, Cycnus, the Son of Sthenelus, King of the Ligurians, Cousin to Phaeton, of whom Ovid, Metam. l. 2. The second was Son of Apollo, and Hyrie, or Thyrie, of whom likewise Ovid makes mention. Metam. l. 7. The third was Son of Mars and Pyrene, slain by Hercules, of whom Apollodorus l. 2. and Hyginus, c. 3. The fourth, the Son of Ma●…s and Pelopia, slain also by Hercules, according to Pindar, in Olymp. The fifth, the Son of Neptune, before mentioned.  Neptunian Cycnus slew.  
Or when in Heat of Fight with strenuous Force  
Through Troops he charged, and 
o And stopped the River's course.] Of this see Homer, Iliad 21. and Statius, in Achilleid. 1. where by way of Prophecy, he declares, that 

— Aeacideses tepido modò Sanguine Teucros  
Undabit campos, modò crassa exire vetabi●…  
Flumina—    stopped the River's Course  
With slaughtered Carcases, while Xanthus' Tide,  
Seeking a Passage through, did slowly glide.  
Or such when Victor trailing by the Heels  

p Trailing by the heels Hector and Troy.] He alludes to what is reported by Hyginus (De Fabul.) of Achilles, who dragging Hector at his Chariot, cried out in a vain glorious boast, Expugnavi Trojam.  Hector and Troy, born on Triumphant Wheels.  
Then with this voice of Anger fills the Coast:  
Go, Go ye lingering Greeks, and rob our Ghost  
Of its due Honours; weigh ingrateful! weigh  
Your Anchors, through our Seas to make your Way.  
'Twas not with Trifles Greece did satisfy  
Achilles' Anger, nor a Price less high  
Shall she now pay. Polyxena be wed  
T' our Ashes; and her Blood let Pyrrhus shed.  
This said, he shrouds himself in Night, and sinks  
To Hell again: the Earth together shrinks,  
Closing her gaping Clefts; the quiet Main  
Becalmed lies; the Winds their Rage restrain,  
The smooth Seas move with gentle Murmurings,  
And 
q Triton, etc.] The Son of Neptune and Amphitrite, according to Hesiod and Apolodorus; or of Neptune, and Celano, as Tzetzes upon Lycophron, who, in his Cassandra, calls him likewise the Son of Nereus. Servius, in Aeneid. 1. makes him the Son of Neptune, and Salaci●…, which perhaps is the same with Amphitrite. He was the prime marine Trumpeter, and formed Half-man, Half-dolphin, endued with humane voice, and is here introduced, perhaps in honour of Thetis his Kinswoman, to sing the Epithalamium to her Son's designed, or rather feigned Nuptials with the unfortunate Polyxena.  Triton thence the Hymeneal sings.    

ACT II. SCENE II.  

PYRRHUS,  
AGAMEMNON.   Pyrrhus. 

When Home you thought to Sail, full Fraught with Joy,  

r Achilles' fell.] Being shot with an Arrow by Paris, and that treacherously, having trained him to the Temple of Apollo Thymbr●…us, to treat about his Marriage with Polyxena, according to Tzetzes upon Lycophron, and Servius, in Aeneid. 6. though Euripides, in Philocte●…. Q. Calaber, and Ovid, in Epist. Hermion. seem to infer, that he was slain by Apollo, with an Arrow shot in his Heel, where he was only vulnerable (as some fable) in regard he would not desist, at his request, from infesting the Trojans. But as Hyginus (de Fab. c. 107.) reports, this was done by Apollo, in the likeness of Paris. Others, from the authority of Homer, in Iliad. 19 and Virgil, Aeneid. 6. will have him shot by Paris, but that Apollo directed and designed the shaft, as Virgil (loco citat.) intimates in these verses: 

Phoebe, graves Trojae semper miserate labores,  
Dardana qui Paridis direxii tela manumque  
Corpus in Aeacidae.—    Achilles fell; by whose sole Arm fell Troy.  
Whose All-ore-mastering Valour soon repaid  
The Loss of that delay which 
s Scyros.] Is an Island in the Aegean Sea, midway between Lesbos and Euboea, at this day called Scyra, and Scyro (and different from that Scyrus which by Ptolemy is reckoned one of the Cyclades.) Here Achilles, by his Mother's advice, was concealed for sometime (to avoid his going to the war of Troy) in the habit of a young Virgin, (called Pyrrha, from the colour of his hair, being yellow) among the Daughters of King Lycomedes. Of which, Apollodorus, Bibl. l. 3. Ovid, Metam. l. 13. and Statius, in Achilleid. l. 1.  Scyros made,  
And 
t Lesbos.] Achilles, after he had left Scyros, before he joined the Grecian Fleet, put in at Lesbos, one of the most celebrated Islands in the Aegean Sea, where he made himself Master of a considerable Booty, which the Countrypeople endeavouring to regain, called to their assistance Trambelus, the Son of Telamonius, then upon the place, who in that Attempt was slain by Achilles. After which he laid siege to Methymne, but was notably opposed; insomuch that he almost despaired of taking the place, until by chance Pis●…dice, the King's Daughter, seeing him from the Wall, became enamoured of his Person, and promised to betray the Town to him, on condition he would Marry her; which being seemingly consented to by Achilles, the Town was accordingly delivered to him. But he, in detestation of her unnatural treachery, not only refused to Marry her, but caused her to be stoned to Death by his Soldiers. These were his exploits in Lesbos, as they are recorded by Parthenius, in Erotic. c. 21. and 26. partly from the authority of Euphorion, partly from that of an anonymous Poet, who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, wrote of the Lesbian Affairs; of which the Verses are cited by Parthenius, and from him, by Delrius, in his Notes upon this Tragedy.  Lesbos, that divides th' Aegean Flood;  
For Troy's Fall doubtful still, he absent, stood.  
Should you now haste to satisfy his Will,  
Yet were it tardy Satisfaction still.  
Now every Chief his proper share hath took;  
For less Reward can so much Virtue look?  
Merits he Nothing? Who, when (charged to shun  
Wars Hazards) his Life's Course he might have run  
In peaceful Quiet beyond Nestor's years;  
Yet slighting his Disguise and Mother's Fears,  
He 
v Himself Man by assumed Arms confessed.] The Story or Fable is this; achilles', as is before noted, being concealed in Scyros, by his Mother, among the Daughters of Lycomedes, in the habit of one of the same Sex, could by no means be found out, till the Greeks, consulting Calchas, were by him told where he lay hid in disguise, upon which Ulysses, and, as Statius (in Achilleid.) adds, Diomedes (with whom the Scholiast upon Homer joins likewise Phoenix and Nestor) was sent to Scyros, to discover him. Who did it by this Stratagem. Coming like a Merchant with several Wares to sell, he exposed them in the Court of Lycomedes; where among divers sorts of womens' Dresses, and other Accoutrements, proper for them, He set out sundry Arms, as well offence as defensive, of curious Workmanship. While the Virgins were looking upon such Merchandizes as were agreeable to them, achilles' regarded only the Arms. Whereupon Ulysses gave private notice to a Trumpeter he had brought with him, to sound, at a fitting distance, a Charge, as if some Enemy were coming upon them. At which the young Ladies, affrighted, ran speedily away, to secure themselves, only Achilles undauntedly seized upon a Buckler and a laveline, and put himself in a posture of descending his Life. By which act he discovered himself to Ulysses, who, by fair persuasions, so wrought with him, that he went along with the Greeks to the Trojan War, See the History at large in Hyginus, De Fabulis, cap. 96. in Statius, Achilleid. l. 2. and Natalis Comes, l. 9 c. 1.  himself Man, by assumed Arms, confessed.  
When Telephus with barbarous Pride repressed  
Our Entrance into Mysia, 
x His yet rude Hand in that Prince's blood he first imbrued.] The manner how Telephus was wounded, and afterwards cured by Achillos', is thus related, both by Tzetzes upon Lycophron, and Eustathius, in Iliad. 1. The Greek Army, marching to the siege of Troy, mistook their way, and fell into Mysia; where they were vigorously opposed by Telephus, King of that Country, who had like to have given them a total defeat, had not Bacchus, in requital of Agamemnon his many Sacrifices to him, caused a Vine suddenly to spring out of the Earth, with whose entangling branches, Telephus his Legs, or, as some say, those of his Horse, were ensnared, so that he was thrown to the ground, and at the same time dangerously wounded by Achilles, (to which Pindar seems to allude, in Isthm. Ode 8.) Of this hurt he could find no cure, till, consulting the Oracle, he was told, that he was to expect remedy from the Hand only that had wounded him. Whereupon he had recourse to Achilles, who gave him present cure, on condition he should be Guide to the Greeks, in their March against Troy, which in gratitude, he afterwards performed. The means of his Cure is variously reported. Some will have it by scraping the rust of his Spear-head, into Telephus his Wound. Others, that it was by the Juice of an Herb, called Syderiti●…, taught him by Chiron, very prevalent in the curing of Wounds; the Herb, from this application of Achilles, being afterwards called Achillea. Others, that it was by a Plaster of Verdigrease, of which they attribute the Invention to Achilles. Some, by a mixture of the Spearrust and Plaster. But Pliny inclines rather to the first, because the ancient Pictures (says he) represent him scraping the rust of his Spear-head, with his Sword, into Telephus his Wound; the Poets and Painters agreeing herein. Vide Plin. l. 25. c. 5. and l. 34. c. 15.  his yet rude  
Hand in that Prince's Blood he first imbrued.  
Who felt with what a force the Same could wound,  
Yet in his Cure, that no less gentle found.  

y.] Of this name Stephanus, De Urbibus, reckons up no less than nine Cities. But that here meant is the Cilician Thebes, where Eetion, Father of Andromache Reigned, called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by Eustathius, in Iliad. 1. because built, in loco campestri & plano. See Pinedo. upon Stephanus. This City Achilles is here said to have ruined, with the slaughter of its Prince. Hence that of Ovid, met. l. 12. where Achilles boasts of himself, Ectionea●… implevi sanguine Thebas.  Thebes and Eetion by his Arms pursued,  
Both tell; His State and He at once subdued.  
The small 
z Lyrnessus.] A City of Troas, the Birth-place of Hippodamia, the Daughter of Briseus, thence called Briseis, and Wise of Mineus, King thereof, whom Achilles, according to Homer, Iliad. 2. is said to have slain, bringing away Briseis Captive from the subverted City.  Lyrnessus Mountain-seated towers,  
He with like Slaughter leveled by his Powers.  
Ennobled by fair Briseis Captive made.  
He 
a Chryse.] A Town of Phrygia Minor, where Chryses, the Priest of Apollo, and Father to Astynome, or Chrysis, lived, whom they will have to be Brother to Briseus, Father of Hippodamia, or Briseis, who lived at Pedasus. Both which Towns Achilles having sacked and ruined, and dividing the Spoils among the Soldiers and Commanders, he gave to Agamemnon, Astynome, or Chryseis, reserving to himself Hippodamia, or Briseis. But Clryses, Astinome's Father, being Apollo's Priest, demanded his Daughter from Agamemnon, but was dismissed with threats and injuries. Apollo, therefore, to vindicate his Priest, sent a Plague into the Grecian Army; whereupon, to appease the God, Chryseis was restored to her Father: And Agamemnon suspecting Achilles to have encouraged Chryles in redemanding his Daughter, took away Hippodamia, or Briseis from Achilles, whence grew the differences between those Princes.  Chryse, cause of Kingly Difference, laid  
In her own Ruins. 
b Tenedos.]— Notissima famâ Insula— as described by Virgil, lying in sight of the Trojan Shore, heretofore called Leucophrys, as Stephanus De Urbihus writes, sacred to Apollo, who there had his Temple; and was honoured with the title of Apollo Sminthius. It retains at this day its old name, being vulgarly called Tenedo.  Tenedos renowned  
By Fame, and 
c Cilla.] There were anciently three Cities of this Name; one in Africa; another of Aeolis; and a third in Cilicia, being that here meant, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, where Apollo had a Temple, as Hesychius writes; whence he derived the Attribute of Cillaus, as Strabo, lib. 13. testifies. And here I cannot but acquaint the Reader, that Gronovius his Text differs from the Vulgar, he reading, from the Authority of the Florentine Manuscript, the immediately foregoing Verses in the Original, thus, 

Et nota famâ Tenedos, & quae pascuo  
Foecunda pingui Thracios nutrit Greges  
Syros, fretumque Lesbos Aegeum secans  
Et sacra Phoeb●… Cilla.—   Where he takes the fifth Verse in the beginning of this Scene, and inserts it the third of the forecited, viz. Syros, fretumque, etc. We have yet followed the vulgar Editions, nor without reason; which we could easily make out, both against Delrius his Exceptions, and those of Gronovius, would the narrow limits of this Page allow me to expatiate.  Cilla rich in fertile Ground  
To Phoebus' sacred, whose fat Pastures fed  
Large Thracian Flocks, by him were vanquished.  
What? and those Lands through which 
d Caycus.] A River of Mysia, according to Virgil, Georg l. 4. by whom it is called Mysiusque Caycus, Strabo, l. 12. makes it a River of Aeol●…; Lucan, of Idalis, being a Province of the lesser Asia, where he writes, — Gelido Tellus persusa Cayco Idalis— By Ovid (Metam. l. 2.) it is called Teuthrantaeusque Caycus, from Teuthrantia, a Province of Mysia, so called from Teuthras, King thereof. Ovid likewise tells us (Metam. l. 15.) that it was first called Mysus in these Verses. 

Et Mysum, capitisque suiripaque prioris  
Poenituisse ferunt, aliâ nunc ●…re Caycum.   

And Mysus, his first Head and Banks disclaimed,  
Runs a new Course, and is Caycus named.   It was likewise anciently called Adurus; Then Astraeus, from Astraeus, the Son of Neptune, who threw himself into it: Also Pauraus, which name was changed into Caycus, and by means of Caycus, Son of Mercury and Ocyrhoe, who having slain Timander, a Noble Mysian, and being pursued, cast himself into it, as Plutarch, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. reports. At this day it is most commonly called Girmasti; by Niger, Castri; by others, Chiay, as Ortelius and Ferrarius affirm.  Caycus flows;  
Whose Streams augment by dissolved Vernal Snows.  
These so great Slaughters, Nations mighty dread,  
Like Whirl winds through 
e So many Cities.] There are reckoned to be taken and sacked by Achilles in his Expedition to Troy, no less than twelve Maritime, and eleven Inland Towns and Cities, as himself boasts, Iliad. 9 

Twelve Cities with my Fleet I did destroy,  
Eleven with my Land-forces.—    so many Cities spread,  
Which might have been another's closing Fame,  
Were but his 
f His Marches Actions.] To the same sense— Claudian, in 4. Cons. Honorii. 

Quod longis alii bellis posuere mereri,  
Hoc tibi dat Stilis bonis iter.—   And in De Laud. Stilich, 

Vestra manus dubio quicquid discrimin●… gessit,  
Transcurrens egit 〈◊〉.—   Which he seems to have borrowed from this place of our Author.  Marches Actions; thus He came:  
And in so many Glorious Conquests shared  
The Spoils of War, while he for War prepared.  
Though we His other Merits should refrain;  
Were not this One sufficient? Hector slain!  
He Ilium conquered; 'twas but sacked by you.  
Our Parents Noble Praises We'll pursue,  
And his brave Acts, for which that Praise is due.  
Who knows not Hector, in his Father's Sight;  
In's Uncles, 
g Memnon.] Son of Tithon (Priam's Brother) and Aurora, according to Ovid, Apollodorus, Philostratus, and most of the sabulous Writers; or according to Eschylus, as cited by Strabo, l. 15. of Tithon and Cissia, was sent to the succour of Troy, with 10000 Ethiopians, and 10000 Susians, by Theutamus, Monarch of Asia, (the Twentieth in descent from Ninus and Semiramis) and slain by Achilles, in revenge of his Friend Antilochus, formerly killed by Memnon. Of which act Pindar, in 6. Nem. makes a Glorious mention. But Cedrenus (in Histor. compend.) reports, that Ajax having encountered Memnon, and forced him to let fall his Buckler, Achilles being near at hand, took hold of that Advantage, and running him through the Throat, with his Javelin (unsouldier-like) killed him. Philostratus (in vi●…â Apollon. l. 6.) reports, that the Ethiopian Memnon was never at Troy, and (in Heroic.) makes mention of two Memnon's; the one, the Aethiopian Prince; the other, a Trojan, the same here killed by Achilles.  Memnon, fell by him in fight?  
Whose Death his Parents Cheeks with sorrow paled,  
And Morning's rosy Looks in Mourning veiled.  
Himself abhorred the fatal Precedent,  
And learned, that Sons of Gods were not exempt  
From Death. 
h Penthesilea.] Queen of the Amazons, who after many Encounters with Achilles, wherein he was still worsted by her, was at the last slain by him; but not without his extreme regret: Having discovered, after her Helmet was pulled off, her admirable Beauty, which was, even in death more conquering than her Arms, while living. For upon sight of it, he became most passionately in love with her, as Propertius, l. 3. Eleg. 11. testifies in these words; 

Aurea cui postquam nudavit cassida frontem,  
Vicit victorem candida forma suum.   See more to this purpose, in Q. Calaber, l. 1. Lycophron, in Cassandra, Tzetzes upon him, and Servius in 11. Virg. Aeneid. Dares Phrygius yet reports, that Penthesilea was slain by Pyrrhus, not by Achilles; which haply may have more of truth in it, than what is reported by Eustathius, from the tradition of some of the Ancients, that Achilles was slain by Penthesilea, and afterwards (being resuscitated by the Prayers of his Mother) slew her, who first slew him.  Penthesilea too, of All  
Our Fears the last, did by his Valour fall.  
A Virgin than might but his Due be thought,  
Though even from 
i From Argos, or Mycenae.] That is, either one of Agamemnon's own Race and Family, or of the choicest of his Subjects, the Argives, or Mycenians; Argos and Mycenae being two of the chiefest Cities, within his Principalities, and the Places where he had his Court and Residence.  Argos or Mycenae brought,  
Prized you his Merits justly: Can you move  
A Doubt yet, or refuse his Will t'approve?  
Think you 'tis Cruelty to Peleus' Son  
To offer Priam's Daughter? when 
* Iphigenia.  your own  
A Sacrifice to Helena was made?  
For what even Precedent allows, We plead.   Agamemnon. 


k " 'tis Childish weakness, etc.] Whether this contest between Pyrrhus and Agamemnon, be taken from that, between Teucer, and the Atrideses, in Sophocles his Ajax, as Delrius supposes, or from Euripides his Menalippe (of which there are some fragments in Stobeus) as Heinsius' conjectures, is but uncertain. This we may with clearer probability affirm, that Seneca, under the Person of Pyrrhus, seems to set forth the violent and headstrong humour of his Tyrannical Nero, shrouding himself under that of Agamemnon, and by that means occultly chastizing the extravagancies of that Prince's fierce and unbridled disposition.  'Tis Childish Weakness not to rule our Ire.  
" Others the Heat of Youth inflames: This Fire  
In Pyrrhus is Hereditary. We  
Have felt 
l Thy Father's Rage.] Achilles, for the Loss of Briseis, taken from him by Agamemnon, affronted him with outrageous language, and would have drawn his Sword to have killed him, but was hindered by Pallas, and the interposing Eloquence of Nestor. Horace (de Art. Poet.) has drawn his Picture to the Life, in these Verses. 

Scriptor honoratum si fortè reponis Achillem,  
Impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer,  
jura neget sibi nata, nihil non arroget armis.   Which Ben. johnson hath thus Copied. 

— If again  
Honoured Achilles chance by thee be seized,  
Keep him still active, angry, unappeased;  
Sharp and contemning Laws, which at him aim,  
And daring any thing by Arms to claim.    thy Father's Rage; and th' Injury  
Of his high Threats have suffered heretofore.  
‛ The more thy Power, thy Patience should be more.  
Why with the Blood of a Young Virgin slain,  
Seek'st Thou so Great a Leader's Ghost to stain?  
" 'Tis fit this first We learn to know, what e'er  
" The 
m The Victor ought to do, the vanquished bear.] Alexander the Great, in Quintus Curtius, pretends to have fully understood and practised this point of Bravery and Justice, where he says, Et vincere, & consulere victis scio.  Victor ought to do; the Vanquished bear.  
" No violent Dominions long endure:  
" 'Tis Moderation makes a Throne stand sure.  
" When Fortune swells our State to an Excess,  
" 'Tis Wisdom to restrain our Happiness:  
" The Turns of Chance, and too propitious Powers  
" Still fearing; Conquest teaching, how few Hours  
" Can to subversion bring the Greatest State.  
Troy's Fall hath raised our Thoughts to too elate,  
Too stern a Pride; In the same Place We stand  
From whence she fell. Once with too proud a Hand  
I must confess I bore myself, but what  
Might have raised others Thoughts, Success; even that  
Hath humbled Mine. Thou Priam make me Proud!  
Thou bid'st Me fear." What but a splendid Shroud  
" Of Vanity, may We think Crowns to be,  
" Our Brows impaling with false Majesty,  
" Which Chance, in one short Hour, may make her spoil,  
" Without 
n Without a thousand Ships, etc.] Mention being made, not only here, but also in some other places of this Poem, of the number of the Grecian Ships employed in the Trojan War, by the round sum of One Thousand; it is not yet to be understood, as if that were the just number of the Fleet, but only a conjectural account thereof. For Homer (in Iliad. 2.) gives in a List of 1186. The Scholiast of Euripides (in Trag. Orest.) 1155. Dares Phrygius, 1140. Cedrenus (Histor. Compend.) 1198. Thucydides (lib. 1.) and Dion Prusiaeus (Orat. 11.) 1200. Dictys Cretensis, 1255. Of all which Numbers, those given in by Homer and Thucydides seem to have the best warrant of Authority. And having said thus much of the Number of the Ships, it will not be amiss here, to give the Reader a Computation of the Army and Forces, by those Ships transported to the Siege of Troy. And if any Fastidious Heads shall look upon these minute Remarks, as unprofitable, or impertinent. I shall oppose against their censure the example of the incomparable Monsieur Bachet, who, in his curious Annotations upon Ovid's Heroical Epistles (whence he hath gained no less repute in Poetical Learning, than he hath done in Mathematical, by his admirable Commentary upon Diophantus) hath condescended to handle these very particulars, whose footsteps in this inquiry we follow, and accordingly find, that Eustathius (in Iliad. 2.) reckons them to amount to 120000. adding, that Aristarchus made them no less than 142320 Soldiers; for Authors differ no less about the Muster of the Forces, than they do in the Number of the Ships. There is a passage or two in Homer, whence the computation may be made; the the first, Iliad. 8. where the Trojan Camp is described, to contain 1000 Fires, and Fifty Soldiers allotted to warm themselves at each. By which reckoning, it may appear, that the Trojans, with their Allies, were only 50000. strong. Now in the second Iliad, Agamemnon boasts, that there were more than ten Greeks to every Trojan, By which account the Grecian Army would amount to above Five Hundred Thousand Men. And yet that seems incredible, in regard, that in the most flourishing State of Greece, which was about the time of Xerxes his Invasion, all Greece could not make head against Mardonius, with an Army of above a Hundred Thousand. The sorementioned Monsieur Ba●…het, in his Commentary upon the fifth Book of Diophantus his Arith. produces an Epigram (published in Agone Homeri & Hesiodi, set forth in Greek) where Homer is introduced, to answer Hesiod's Question, touching the Number of the Grecian Army; thus in Latin, 

Septeni luxere foci, sed quemlibet ante  
Quinquaginta caro verubus transfixa tremebat,  
Nongen●…sque veru Danais data fercula ab uno.   Which is resolved, by Multiplying together 7 (the Number of the Fires, and 50 (the Number of the Spits) making 350. then, by that, Multiplying 900. the Number of Men, fed by the Flesh on one Spit, which will make the Number of 315000. Soldiers. But Thucydides, a most grave Historian (lib. 1.) computes the Number after this manner. He supposes, that, in every one of the greater Ships, there might be 120. Soldiers; in every one of the lesser 50▪ both amounting to 170. Of which sum of 170. taking a Medium, by halving, there will then remain 85. the Number of Men supposed to be in each Ship, one with another. Wherefore Multiplying the Number of Homer's whole Fleet, being 1186. Ships, by 85. the Product will be 100810. Soldiers: or, according to Thucydides his own List of the Ships, being 1200. Multiplied by 85, as aforesaid, 102000 Men.  a Thousand Ships, or Ten Years Toil.  
" So slow a Fate attends not All. And Greece!  
(If with thy leave I may confess it) This  
I'll say; I would have Ilium distressed,  
Nay more, subdued; 
o [Her ruin yet repressed.] The example of Marcellus, at Syracuse, in this particular, is memorable, and conformable to the Clemency here professed by Agamemnon, as it is represented by Silius Italicus, lib. 3. 

— Post quam sublimis ab alto  
Aggere, despexit trepidam clangoribus urbem,  
Inque suo positum nutu, stint moenia Regum,  
An nullos Oriens videat lux crastina muros,  
Ingemuit, nimiumque viris, tantumque licere  
Horruit; & propere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it â  
jussit stare domos—   

— Sic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
Pro praedâ fuit—    her Ruin yet repressed;  
But the hot Rage of an incensed Foe,  
And Victory, by Night obtained, know  
No Curb. What cruel or unworthy Fact  
May seem committed, that Revenge did act,  
And Darkness, which does Fury forward thrust,  
And the Victorious Sword; whose killing Lust  
Having once tasted Blood's ne'er satisfied.  
If aught of ruined Troy may yet abide  
After All This, now let it stand secured:  
Enough, more than enough, she hath endured.   

That at thy Father's Tomb the Princess should  
Be made a Sacrifice, and with her Blood  
Sprinkle his Ashes, or that yet so vile  
Cruel a Murder We should Nuptials style,  
We'll ne'er permit: 'tis We must bear the Blame:  
" Who ought, yet not forbids Ill, bids the same.   Pyrrhus. 
Shall than Achilles' Ghost due Honour's want?  Agamemnon. 

Dues it shall have, and every Tongue shall chant  
His Praise; and Lands unknown resound his Fame,  
And celebrate the Glory of his Name.  
If yet his Ashes nought but Blood can ease,  
Let that of slaughtered Herds his Ghost appease.  
But let no Blood be spilled to be bewailed,  
By wretched Mothers: How ye Gods prevailed,  
Or whence did this inhuman Custom rise  
Of making 
p [Making Man to Man a Sacrifice.] The original of this impious kind of Sacrifice seems to be derived anciently from that Example of Abraham's obedience to the Divine Command, in offering his Son Isaac. Of which, besides the authority of Scripture, mention is made even by profane Historians, as Eusebius (in Praepar. Evangel. l. 9 c. 19) testifies, from the Writings of Melo, cited by Alexander Polyhistor. Hence by Satanical emulation, or instigation, these humane (or rather inhuman) Immolations seem to have been propagated, among the ancient Heathens, in their Sacrifices to their Fictitious Deities, Saturn, Belus, or Moloch, jupiter, Apollo, or Mithra, Venus, Diana, Mercury; nay, to Heroes, Emperors, Kings, Princes, private Persons, and what is yet worse, even to Brutes and Monsters; touching which, (to spare the citations of ancient Testimonies) see the late Treatise of jacobus Geusius, De Victimis Humanis; where whatever may concern that subject is laboriously collected. Besides what the Reader may meet with, in Stuckius, De Sacrificiis Gentil. Gerard. Io. Vossius, De Origine & Progressu Idolatr. l. 1. and Saubertus, de Sacrific. Veterum, c. 21. or in our learned Selden, De Diis Syris Syntagm. 1. c. 6. together with Andrea's Beyerus thereupon, In Additament. and Schedius, De Diis German. c. 32.  Man to Man a Sacrifice!  
Think but what Hate would to thy Sire accrue,  
Should such dire Rites be to his Honour due.   Pyrrhus. 

Thou insolently Haughty in Success,  
As fearfully dejected in Distress!  
Tyrant o'er Kings! does new-sprung Love infest  
Yet once again with sudden Flames thy Breast?  
Does Agamemnon think that he shall still  
Thus wrong Achilles? No; know Pyrrhus will,  
Or see this Victim offered to his Grave,  
Or else a greater, worthier Victim have:  
This Sword here thinks it does too long abstain  
From Royal Blood, and Priam's Ghost would fain  
Have a King's bear it Company.   Agamemnon. 

'Tis true;  
The greatest Praise that is to Pyrrhus due,  
Is that he murdered Priam, whom his Sire  

q Spared when his Suppliant.] Coming to implore the redemption of Hector's Corpse, of which see the relation in Homer's Iliad 24.  Spared when his Suppliant.   Pyrrhus. 

'Tis Truth entire;  
We know't: that They who were my Father's Foes  
Were forced to be his Suppliants; you 'mongst those.  
But Priam was the Stouter of the Two,  
He came in Person to petition; You  
Not yet so Valiant as to supplicate,  
Like a tame Coward, chose to delegate  

r Ajax and Ithacus.] To these Homer (Iliad 9) adds Phoenix, as chief of the Embassy, whom Ovid (in Epist. Briseid. ad Achillem.) follows. These, at the entreaty of Agamemnon, sued to make his peace with Achilles, not only by proffering him to return Briseis, but offering him also rich Presents, both which the obstinate Hero refused.  Ajax and Ithacus to make your Prayer,  
Whilst you lay skulking, and kept close for fear.   Agamemnon. 

But your brave Father feared not 'tis confessed,  
He 'mongst fired Ships, and slaughtered Greeks could rest  
Secure; unmindful of his Charge; and run  

s Upon his Lute.] Achilles, besides his Martial Arts, was trained up by Chiron, in Physic, and Music, Vocal and Instrumental, in which he became an excellent Proficient, and for which he is celebrated by the ancient Poets. This Lute, or Lyre of his, is said to have been that of Mercury's, which Corybas, the Son of jasion▪ and Nephew of Dardanus, is reported (according to Diodorus Siculus, l. 5.) to have left at Lymessus, and which Achilles, when he took that Town, sound, and carried away with him. From this yet Homer, (Iliad. 9) dissents, telling us, that when the Ambassadors sent from Agamemnon came to him, they found him playing upon a Silver-necked Lute, curiously wrought, which, among other spoils, he brought from the sack of Eetionean Thebes.  Upon his Lute nimble Division.   Pyrrhus. 

Yet was great Hector, who your Arms despised,  
At sound but of his Lute with fear surprised.  
And in the midst of Terror and dismay  
His Navy yet in peaceful Quiet lay.   Agamemnon. 
Yes, the same Navy Priam durst to board.  Pyrrhus. 
" 'Tis Kingly to a King Life to afford.  Agamemnon. 
Then why a King did you deprive of Breath?  Pyrrhus. 
" There's Mercy sometimes shown in giving Death.  Agamemnon. 
So you'd in Mercy Sacrifice a Maid?  Pyrrhus. 

And such a Sacrifice can you dissuade,  
Who offered your own Child?   Agamemnon. 

" Their Kingdom's Good  
" King's should prefer before their children's Blood.   Pyrrhus. 
Forbid a Captiv's Death no Law e'er did.  Agamemnon. 
" What the Law does not, is by Shame forbid.  Pyrrhus. 
" What likes, is lawful, by All Victor's thought.  Agamemnon. 
" T' whom much is lawful, to like, little aught.  Pyrrhus. 

'Fore these thus vaunt'st thou, who by Pyrrhus are  
Freed from the Bondage of a Ten Years War?   Agamemnon. 
Breeds 
t Breeds Scyrus such high Blood.] The Poet perhaps alludes to the Proverb, or common byword, Scyrius Principatus, which is meant of a mean, and low Principality, as Suidas testifies, in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in regard the Island is stony and unfruitful; whence, according to Bochartus (in Canaan, l. 1. c. 12.) the name seems to be derived. See likewise Erasmus, in Adag. Scyrius Principatus.  Scyrus such high Blood?  Pyrrhus. 

Scyrus which knows  

v— Which knows No Brother's Sins. As Mycenae and Argos were guilty of. For Atreus and Thyestes, the Sons of Pelops, by Hippodamia, were first guilty of the Murder of their Brother-in-law Chrysippus, whom Pelops begat on Axioche, his Concubine. Afterward, Thyestes, by the help of Aerope, the Wife of Atreus, whom he had seduced to play the Adulteress, became Master of his Brother's Golden-fleeced Ram (which was the fatal Ornament of his Kingdom) upon which Atreus, to be revenged, kills three of Thyestes his Children, than Hostages in his Court, and inviting Thyestes to a Treatment of seeming reconcillation, feasts him with the Flesh and Blood of his Children. From the sight of which horrid Banquet, the Sun is said to have withdrawn his light. See Hyginus, De Fabul, Pausani●…, in 〈◊〉. and the Tragedy of Thyestes, among those which go under the name of Seneca's.  No Brother's Sins.   Agamemnon. 
Which strait'ning Seas enclose.  Pyrrhus. 

Yes, Seas that owe us a Relation;  
Indeed 
x— Thyestes noble House, Great Atreus too— Ironically spoken, and reflecting upon the unhappy miscarriages of Agamemnon his Family (of which in the foregoing Note) being notwithstanding of a very Illustrious Original. For jupiter, on Plutô, Daughter of Hym●…s, (as Hyginus, de Fabulis, c. 15. makes her) or as some will, of Oceanus, as others, of Saturn. begot Tantalus. He, on 〈◊〉, or (according to Hyginus, c. 〈◊〉.) on Dione, Daughter of Atlas, Pelops; Who by Hippodamia, only Daughter of O●…omaus, had Atreus, and Thyestes; Atreus, by Aerop●…, Daughter of Crateus Agamemnon, and Menelaus', thence called Atriis. Though Servius (in Ae●…id. 1.) tells us, the name Atrides was 〈◊〉 us●…patum, Agamemnon and Menelaus being the Sons of Plysthe●…es, and not of Atreus. Which difference of opinion some reconcile thus, making Plysthe●…es the Son of Atreus, and to have died very young, but to have been Father of two Sons, Agamemnon and Menelaus, whom he left to the care and tuition of their Grandfather, Atreus, whence they were called Atrides, But the most common, and most prevalent opinion is, that they were really the Sons of Atreus; and that after the Death of their Father (slain by Aegysthus, the Son of Thyestes) they were conveyed (as Tzetzes tells the Story, Chil. Hist. 18.) by one Trotecomp●…us, to Polyp●…idus, King of Sicyonia, who the better to secure them from the malice of Thyestes, sent them to Oeneus, King of Aetolia. Not long after which, Tyndarus, King of Sparta, taking notice of them to be hopeful Princes, adopted them for his Sons-in-law, Marrying his two Daughters, Clytemnestra and Helena, the one to Agamemnon, the other to Menelaus.  Thyestes noble House W' have known,  
Great Atreus too.   Agamemnon. 

Out thou Girls Bastard Brat,  
Got by Achilles, when scarce Man.   Pyrrhus. 

Achilles, who to the whole World allied  

y Enjoys the Honours of the Deified.] Achilles, soon after his death, was honoured with Divine Rites. Of which the ancient Scholiast upon Statius his Achilles, explicating this Verse, Iliaci scopulos habitare Sepulchri, thus writes, Ubi Achillem pro Deo consecraturi erant Mortales. For near his Tomb, on the Sigaean Promontory, he had a Temple dedicated to him, called Achilleion, where he was worshipped by the Ilienses, as Britanicus notes upon the same verse. Pausanias, in Laconicis, tells of a Temple near Sparta. dedicated to him, and built by Praces, Grandchild of Pergamus, Son of Neoptolemus, or Pyrrhus, where the Athlet●…, or Combatants, who went into the Planetree Grove, on Solemn days to fight, offered Sacrifice to Achilles, before the Combat. And Dion Prusieus (Orat. 36.) reports that his Countrymen, the ●…orystenitae, had him in highest veneration, to whom they built a Temple, in a certain Island, which they called after his Name. By the Athenians likewise he was worshipped as their Tutelar Deity, by whose supposed Protection, both that City and the whole Region of Attica (as Zosimus in 4. Hist. from the Authority of Syrianus, the Philosopher, would persuade his Reader to believe) was preserved from the threatning ruin of Earthquakes, generally infesting all Greece, in the time of Valens, the Eastern Emperor. The same Zosimus in his fifth Book, likewise adding, that when Alaricbus besieged that City, with intent to have destroyed it, he was frighted from his design, by the appearance of this angry Demi-God, at the Prayers, and Intercession of the Besieged. Not to mention the Honours done him by Alexander the Great, and Antonius Caracalla, the Roman Emperor, in their Parentations at his Monument, mentioned by Arrian and Herodian. The overcurious criticising of Gronovius upon this place, endeavouring to wrest the Original text from the common Reading of the Words, as we have rendered them, is to little purpose.  Enjoys the Honours of the Deified,  
Who can a Claim to Seas by Thetis move,  
To Hell by Aeacus, to Heaven by jove.   Agamemnon. 
Yes, He who fell by Paris feeble Hand.  Pyrrhus. 

Whom yet not any of the Gods durst stand  
In open fight.   Agamemnon. 

Sir, I could rule your Tongue,  
And give your Boldness due Correction;  
But that this Sword of Ours, knows how to spare  
Even Captives: Let the God's Interpreter,  
Calchas, be called, and what the Fates command  
By Him, to that We willingly will stand.   Enter Calchas. Agamemnon. 

Thou Sacred Minister, who loos'dst the Bar  
Which stopped the Grecian Navy, and the War,  
Whose Art unlocks the Heavens, expounds their Laws,  
And from Beasts Entrails, Thunder, Comets, draws  
The sure Presages of ensuing Fate,  
Whose Words We purchased at so dear a Rate,  
Now here declare what 'tis the Gods intent:  
And this our Strife, let thy grave Counsel end.   Calchas. 

The usual means, Fates of Return afford  
The Greeks. To th' Tomb of the Thessalian Lord  
The Virgin must be sacrificed; so dressed  
As Grecian Brides are at their Nuptial Feast,  
And Pyrrhus wedded to thy Sire by Thee,  
With these due Rites shall she espoused be.  
Yet is not This our Fleets sole Remora.  
More Noble Blood than Thine, Polyxena,  
The Fates require. Great Hector's only Son  
From some high Turret must be headlong thrown;  
So have the Gods decreed he should be slain.  
Then may your Conquering Navy plough the Main. 
In the following Chorus, consisting of Trojan Women, aptly enough introduced, to question the verity of Achilles' rising from the Dead, as rumoured in the foregoing Act, Seneca takes occasion to make them speak his own Epicurean and Stoical Sentiments, in prejudice to the Persuasion of the Souls Immortality, thereby rendering the subject of their Discourse confessedly impious▪ In so much, that Delrius, (otherwise no less a friend to him, than his friend Lipsius) is here forced to leave him, and to cry out, Valeat Seneca cum suis Animae necatoribus; having first prepared an Antidote against his poisonous Assertions, therein vindicating the Soul's Immortality, by Arguments, drawn not only from the Reasonings of the wisest Philosophers, and the common Sentiment of most Nations, but also from the Dictates of Scripture, Fathers, Councils, and the mee●… light of Nature. To which, by way of precaution, we refer the unwary Reader.    CHORUS. 

IS it a Truth? or Fiction blinds  
Our fearful Minds?  
That when to Earth We Bodies give,  

z Souls yet do live.] The Stoics are not all of one persuasion, touching the state of the Soul, after the Death of the Body; some affirming it to die with the Body, as Panaetius, and his Followers. Others, with Cleanthes, (with whom likewise Chrysippus in part consents, as to the Souls only of the Wise,) allow to them a survivance after the Body, but not to endure longer than the World's general Conflagration. Which opinion Cicero (in 1. Tuscul.) hath thus ingeniously expressed: Stoici usuram nobis largiuntur, tanquam Cornicibus; Diu mansuros 〈◊〉 A●…tmos, semper, negunt.  Souls yet do live?  
That when the 
a 

The Wife hath closed with cries  
The Husband's Eyes.   The Ancients, as well Greeks as Romans, were most superstitiously observant of the Ceremony of closing the Eyes of the Dead, and this was always done, or intended to be done, by those of nearest Relation, as of Wives for their Husbands, Husbands for their Wives, Parents for their Children Children for their Parents, and so in order, according to their Degree of Proximity, by Blood or Friendship. Of the manner of performing which Ceremony, and of the Reasons for it, the Reader may find a particular account, in Kirkmannus de Funeribus, lib. 1. c. 6. and Meursius upon the same subject, lib. singular. c. 3.  Wife hath closed with Cries  
The Husband's Eyes,  
When the last fatal day of Light  
Hath spoiled our Sight,  

b 

When to Ashes turned  
Our Bones are Urned.   After the Corpse was burnt (which was the manner of the ancient Funeral) they collected the remaining Bones and Ashes of the Dead; which Office, or Duty among the Romans, was called Ossilegium. The Bon●… and Ashes so collected together, they be sprinkled with Wine and other odorous liquours, and bedewed with their Tears, than put them up into small Vessels, which they called Urns; which Urns or Vessels were distinguished by their proper names of Ossuaria and Cineraria. See the forecited Authors in the precedent Note.  And when to Dust and Ashes turned  
Our Bones are urned;  
Souls stand yet in no Need at All  
Of Funeral.  
But that 
c 

A longer life with pain  
They still retain.   This is the best condition which the most eminent of the Stoics allow to a separated Soul; for the Life of a Soul, after the Body's Death, the Stoics (as Delrius upon this place notes) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 miseriam rebantur, though Lactantius (lib. 7.) reports Zeno to have taught otherwise. The words of Lactantius are these: Esse Inferos Zenon Stoicus docuit, & sedes Piorum ab Impiis esse discretas; & illos quidem quietas, ac delectabiles incolere regiones, nos verò liter●… poenas in tenebrosis locis, atque in coeni voraginibus horrendis.  a longer Life with pain  
They still retain?  
Or die We quite? nor ought We have  
Survives the Grave?  
When like to Smoak immixed with Skies,  
The Spirit flies.  
And 
d 

Tapers are applied  
To th' naked side.   Alluding to the ancient Custom or Ceremony, in setting fire to the Funeral Pile whereon the dead body was to be burnt, which was done by the nearest of kin of the Male Sex, who (as Virgil expresses the manner of doing it) 

— subjectam more Parentum  
Aversam tenuere facem—   going backward, and turning their Faces from the Pile, Ut id officium necessitatis esse ostenderent, non voluntatis, says Servius upon that place: adding likewise, that these Funeral Lights or Torches were made ex funibus, of twisted Cords, (which, as Isidore tells us, were cerâ circundari;) whence Varro derives the denomination of Funeral.  Funeral Tapers are applied  
To th' naked Side.  
What e'er Sol's Rising does disclose,  
A Setting shows;  
What e'er the Sea with flowing Waves  
Or ebbing laves;  
Old Time that moves with winged pace  
Doth soon deface.  
With the same swiftness the Signs roll  
Round, round the Pole,  
With the same course Day's Ruler steers  
The fleeting Years;  
With the same speed th'oblique-paced Moon  
Does wheeling run:  
We all are hurried to our Fates,  
Our Lives last Dates;  
And when we reach the Stygian Shore,  
Are then no more.  
As Smoke which springs from Fire is soon  
Dispersed and gone;  
Or Clouds which we but now beheld,  
By Winds dispelled;  
The Spirit which informs this Clay  
So fleets away.  

e 

Nothing is after Death; and this  
Too Nothing is.   Seneca here does not so much seem to declare, as to confirm his Opinion (to use Heinsius' Expression) which he hath elsewhere to this purpose laid down, both in his Epistles to Lucilius, and particularly in Consolat. ad Marciam, from whom his Nephew Lucan hath borrowed thus much in the third of his Pharsalia: 

Aut nihil est sensûs animis à morte reliqum,  
Aut mors ipsa nihil—   

Or Souls no sense do after Death retain.  
Or Death is nothing—   To a much better and contrary sense Propertius, lib. 3. Eleg. Sunt aliquid Ma●…es, Lethum non omnia finite.  Nothing is after Death; and this  
Too Nothing is:  
The Gaol, or the extremest space  
Of a swift Race.  

f The Covetous.] That is, the desirous of death, in hopes thereby to better their Condition.  The Covetous their Hopes forbear,  

g The sad] That is, those that fear punishment for their Offences after death.  The Sad their fear.  
Ask'st thou when ere thou com'st to die,  
Where thou shalt lie?  

h Where lie th'unborn.] This is but a Repetition of what he elsewhere declares, (Consolat. ad Marc.) Mors nos in illam tranquillitatem, in qua, antequam nasceremur, jacuimus, reponit. Si mortuorum aliquis miseretur, & nonnatorum misereatur.  Where lie th'unborn. Away Time rakes us,  
Then Chaos takes us.  
Death's Individual; like kind  
To Body or Mind.  

i What e'er of Taenarus they sing, etc.] The same Position he maintains in Consolat. ad Marciam, in these words, Illa quae nobis inferos faciunt terribiles fabula est, etc. Luserunt ista Poet●…, & vanis nos agitavere terroribus. Where we may see he hath in this place only transferred the sense of his Philosophical Prose into Poetical Numbers; and from this Instance and the foregoing clearly infer, (were there no other Arguments to evince it) that Seneca the Philosopher was the Author of this Tragedy.  What e'er of Taenarus they sing,  
And Hell's fierce King,  
How Cerberus still guards the Port  
O'th' Stygian Court,  
Are all but idle Rumours found,  
And empty Sound;  
Like the vain Terrors of the Night,  
Or Dreams that fright.     

ACT III.  

SCENE I.  

Andromache,  
Senex,  
Astyanax mute.   Andromache. 

Why tear you thus your Hair, and weeping beat  
Your wretched Breasts, ye Phrygian Dames? We yet  
Suffer but lightly, if we suffer what  
Is only to be wept. Troy fell but late  
To you, to me long since. When in our view  
Cruel Achilles at his Chariot drew  
My Hector's Limbs; whilst with a Weight unknown  
The trembling Axletree did seem to groan.  
Then, then was Troy o'erthrown, than Ilium fell;  
Sense of that Grief makes me unsensible.  
And now by Death freed from Captivity  
I'd follow Hector; but this Boy here, he  
Witholds me; he (sweet Child) my Will restrains,  
And from a much-desired Death detains.  
'Tis he that makes me yet the Gods entreat;  
He to my Griefs a longer time hath set.  
And though my greatest Comfort, took from me  
The greatest Comfort in my Misery,  
Security from Fear; no place doth rest  
For happier Fortune with the worst oppressed  
And saddest Miseries:" For to fear still  
" When Hope hath left us, is the worst of iii.   Senex. 
What sudden Fear does thy sad Mind surprise?  Andromache. 

From our great Ills still greater Ills arise.  
Nor yet can Ilium's fatal Woes have end.   Senex. 
What further Miseries does Heaven intend?  Andromache. 

Hell's opened; and our Foes, that we might ne'er  
Want Terror, rising from their Graves appear.  
And can this only to the Greeks befall?  
Sure Death is equally the same to all.  
That common Fear all Phrygians doth distress;  
But my sad Dream doth me alone oppress.   Senex. 
Declare, what did thy dreadful Dream present?  Andromache. 

Two parts of quiet Night were almost spent,  
And now the 
k Seven Triones.] The words in the Original are, Clarúmque septem verterant stella jugum. meaning those in the Constellation of the Northern Bear or Wain, which the Latins call Septem Triones, from their resemblance of Oxen drawing a Wain, Of which thus Festus: Septem Triones septem stella appellantur, àbubus junctis, quos Triones veteres appellant, quòd juncti arant terram quasi Teriones. And to the same purpose Varro de Lingua Lat. l. 6. Triones & Boves appellantur à Bubulcis etiam nunc, maximè cum arant terram: Eque is ut dicti valentes Glebarii, qui facilè proscindunt Glebas, sic omnes qui terram arabant, à terra Teriones, unde Triones, etc. Upon which score I have made bold here to adopt the word into English, and (as I conceive) with as good sense, and better sound in Verse, than by plainly and flatly rendering Septem Stellae the Seven Stars. Whether the word may pass among us. I leave to the Modern Censors of Language: This I cannot but add, that among the Romans it was taken up by some of the Lucretian Family, as a distinct Cognomen. Whence among the Consular Coins we find some of L. LUCRETIUS TRIO, on the reverse of which is stamped the Figure of an Half Moon and the Seven Stars, or Septem Triones; Quibus notis (says Fulvius Ursinus in Famil. Roman.) opinor L. Lucretium cognominis sui originem indicare voluisse. See likewise to this purpose Scaliger upon Festus, as before cited.  Seven Triones had wheeled round  
Their glittering Wain, when Rest (a Stranger found  
To my afflicted Thoughts) in a short Sleep  
Upon my wearied Eyes did gently creep,  
(If such Amaze of Mind yet Sleep may be.)  
Straight to my thinking I did Hector see.  
Not such as when against the Argives bent  
On Grecian Ships 
l Idaean Flames.] That is, Torch's or Firebrands made of Pine, cut from Mount Id●…, wherewith the Trojans attempted to fire the Grecian Fleet, led by the Conduct and Valour of Hector. Of which Exploit see H●…er in the 12, 13, 14, and 15 of his Iliads.  Idaean Flames he sent;  
Nor such when he his Foes with slaughter struck,  
And real Spoils from 
m False Achilles.] Meaning Patroclus dressed in the Armour of Achilles. For Patroclus seeing the Greeks worsted by Hector, and their Ships begun to be fired, begged of Achilles that he would permit him the use of his Arms, and the Conduct of the Myrmidons. Which being granted him he bravely charged the Trojans, and forced them to a Retreat. In which Action he was first wounded by Euphorbus, and forced to retire; yet not without the intervening assistance of Apollo, who before had caused his Armour to be loosened, and to fall from him: Whereupon Hector pursuing him, killed him outright. Whence dying he thus upbraids Hector in Homer Iliad 16. 

Pernicious Fate and Phoebus first o'erthrew me,  
Euphorbus next, thou'rt but the third that slew me.    false Achilles took.  
Nor did his sprightly Eyes with Lightning glance,  
But with a sad dejected Countenance  
Like mine he stood; his Hair all soiled and wet,  
(It joyed me although such to see him yet.)  
His Head then shaking thus at length he spoke;  
Awake, my dear Andromache, awake,  
And quickly hence Astyanax convey;  
Let him be closely hid, no other way  
Is left to save him: thy sad Cries forbear.  
Grievest thou Troy's fallen? would God it wholly were.  
Quickly dispatch, and to some secret place  
Convey this small last hopes of all our Race.  
Sleep from my Senses a cold horror shook,  
When staring round with an affrighted look  
Wretch, I (my Child forgot) for Hector sought;  
But lo the fleeting shadow, whilst I thought  
To have embraced it, fled. O my dear 
* Astyanax.  Joy,  
True Blood of thy great Sire, sole Hopes of Troy!  
Unhappy Issue of too famed a Race!  
Too like thy Father, even such a Face  
My Hector had; his Gait such, so he bore  
His conquering Arms; so did his curled Hair  
Part on his threatning Forehead, 
n— So from's Head Covering his Neck 'bout his tall Shoulders spread.] Hector's fashion or manner of wearing his Hair was peculiar, being raised up from his Forehead, and upon the Crown carried back to the hinder part of his Head, and thence falling down about his Neck, as julius Pollux from the Testimony of Timaeus shows, l. 2. c. 3. Which kind of Tonsure or ordering of the Hair came to be called Hector●… Coma, of which see Lycophron in Cassand, and upon him Meursius and Canterus. Affected by Caligula and Nero the Roman Emperors, and others of the Claudian Family, as Suetonius testifies; who says of the former, that it was his manner to go Capillo pone occipitium submissiore, ut cervicem etiam obtegeret: And of the later, that Comam peregrinatione Ac●…aic â etiam pone verticem submiserit. See not only the particular description of this kind of Tonsure, but also the representation thereof in Sculpture, from an ancient Intaglia in Io. Angelo Canini his Ico●…ographia.  so from's Head  
Covering his Neck, 'bout his tall Shoulders spread.  
O Son, too late unto thy Country born,  
Too soon unto thy Mother! will that Turn,  
That happy Revolution never come,  
That I may see thee build up Ilium,  
And her fled Citizens reduce once more,  
And to their Town and them their Name restore?  
But I forget myself, and fondly crave  
Too happy things:" Enough poor Captives have  
" If they may live. What place, Wretch, can secure  
Thy Fears? sweet Child, where shall I hide thee sure?  
That late proud Palace, rich in Wealth and Fame,  
Built by the Gods, worthy even Envy's Aim,  
Is now to a rude Heap of Ashes turned,  
All's leveled with the Ground, the whole Town burned  
In wasteful Flames; nor doth there now abide  
So much of Troy as may one Infant hide.   

What place would fittest serve for my intent?  
Hard by's mies Husbands stately Monument,  
Which even the Enemy doth reverence,  
Which with much Cost, nor less Magnificence,  
(On his own Sorrows too too prodigal)  
Old Priam built; there I may best of all  
Intrust him with his Sire.— A cold Sweat flows  
O'er all my Limbs, my Mind distracted grows,  
And dreads the omen of the dismal place.   Senex. 

" Oft a supposed Destruction (in this case)  
" Men from a real Ruin hath preserved.  
No other Hope of Safety is reserved.  
A great and fatal Weight on him doth lie,  
The Greatness of his own Nobility.   Andromache. 
Pray Heaven no one discover or betray him.  Senex. 
Let there be none to witness where you lay him.  Andromache. 
How if the Enemy demand the Boy?  Senex. 
Say, He was murdered in subverted Troy.  Andromache. 

What boot it to lie hid a while, that past,  
To fall into their cruel Hands at last?   Senex. 

Despair not, hope for better Fate:" The first  
" Charge of the Victor's Fury is the worst.   Andromache. 

Alas what should we hope, if he can ne'er  
Be kept concealed without apparent Fear?   Senex. 

" Choice of their Safety the Secure may make,  
" Those in distress must hold of any take.   Andromache. 

What Desert place or unfrequented Land  
Will give thee safe Repose? What friendly Hand  
Protect us? To our Fears who'll comfort yield?  
O thou who always didst, thy own now shield,  
Great Hector! This dear Treasure from thy Wife  
Receive, let thy dead Ashes guard his Life.  
Come Child, enter this Tomb; back why dost start?  
Scornest thou to lurk in holes? His Father's Heart  
In him I see; he shames to fear.— Quit, quit  
Thy Princely thoughts now, and take such as fit  
Thy present state. See all of Ilium  
That's left, a Child, a Captive, and a Tomb.  
Submit to Heaven's Decree, nor fear to enter  
Thy Father's Monument; go boldly, venture.  
There, if on Wretch's Fates compassion have,  
Thou'lt Safety find; if Death they give, a Grave.   Senex. 

He's hid: but lest thy Fears should him betray,  
Remove some distance hence another way.   Andromache. 

" The nearer that we fear, we fear the less:  
But if you please let's withdraw—   Senex. 

Whist, peace:  
Madam, your sad Complaints a while suspend,  
The 
o The Cephalenian Prince.] Ulysses, from Cephalenia, an Island in the 〈◊〉 Sea, 120 miles in compass, distant about 20 miles from Zant, of which he was Lord. The Island had anciently four Cities, denominated from the four Sons of Shafalus, Pro●…esus, Samus, Peleus, and Cra●…s. Now only one, of the same Name with the Island, remains, with some Villages, and a Port called Argostol●…, six miles from Cephalenia Southwards. See 〈◊〉▪ in Ferrarli Lexic●…. It was heretofore called Sam●… or Samus, and (according to some, says Ortelius) Tap●…s; at present by the Italians Cefalonia, and is under the Dominion of the Venetians.  Cephalenian Prince this way does bend.   Andromache. 

Cleave, Earth! and thou, dear Spouse, rend up the Ground  
From lowest Hell, and in that dark Profound  
Hide our Love's pledge. He comes, he comes, his Pace  
And Looks speak Plots; there's Mischief in his Face.    

SCENE II.  Enter Ulysses. Ulysses. 

THe Minister of a severe Decree  
I come; yet beg this first, that you would be  
So charitable towards me to believe,  
(Although they utterance from my mouth receive)  
The words I shall deliver are not mine,  
But what the Votes of all the Greeks enjoin.  
Whose late Return to their loved Homes withstands  
Great Hector's Heir: Him Destiny demands.  
Still doubtful Hopes of an uncertain Peace,  
And fear of Vengeance will the Greeks oppress,  
Nor suffer them to lay down Arms so long  
As thy Son lives, Andromache.   Andromache. 

This Song  
Does Calchas your great Prophet sing?   Ulysses. 

Although  
He had said nothing, Hector tells us so.  
Whose Stock we dread:" A generous Race aspires  
" Unto the Worth and Virtue of their Sires.  
So the great Herds small Playfellow, which now  
Sports in the Pastures with scarce budded Brow,  
Straight with advanced Crest and armed Head,  
Commands the Flock which late his Father led.  
And so the tender Sprout of some tall Tree  
Late felled, shoots up in a short time to be  
Equal to that from whence it sprung, and lends  
To Earth a Shade, to Heaven its Boughs extends.  
So the small Ashes of a mighty Fire  
Carelessly left, into new Flames aspire.  
" Grief does indeed matters unjustly state,  
" And makes of things but a wrong Estimate.  
Yet if our Case you duly shall perpend,  
You'll not think strange if after ten Years end,  
Th'old Soldier spent with Toil new Wars should fear,  
And never enough ruined Troy; for ne'er  
Can we enjoy Security of Mind,  
Ourselves not safe, whilst still we fear to find  
Another Hector in Astyanax.  
Then rid us of this Terror that thus wracks  
Our thoughts. This is the only cause of stay  
Unto our Fleet, ready to wing its way.  
Nor think me cruel 'cause by Fates compelled  
I Hector's Son require; had Heaven so willed,  
I had as soon asked 
p Agamemnon's Son.] Orestes, who was formerly called Acheus, according to Plutarch de Orac. Pyth. Ptolemeus Hephaestion (apud Photium) reports he was born upon the Feast-day of Ceres, surnamed Erinnys, thereby presaging, that he should one day be tormented by Furies, as he happened to be, for the Murder of his Mother Clytaemnestra, and her Adulterer Aegysthus, in revenge of his Father's Death by them contrived.  Agamemnon's Son,  
Then suffer what the Victor's self hath done.   Andromache. 

Would God, dear Child, I had thee in my Hand,  
Or knew thy present Fortune, or what Land  
Now harbours thee; though Swords transpierced my Breast,  
Though galling Chains my captived Hands oppressed,  
Or Flames beset me round, they ne'er should move  
Me yet to quit a Mother's Faith or Love.  
Poor Infant, O where art thou? what strange Fate  
Is fallen on thee? wanderest thou desolate  
In untraced Fields? or perishedst thou, my Joy,  
Amidst the Smoke and Flames of burning Troy?  
Or hath the Victor in a wanton Mood  
Of Cruelty played with thy Childish Blood,  
And murdered thee in sport? Or by some Beast  
Slain, do thy Limbs Idaean Vultures feast?   Ulysses. 

Come, come, dissemble not; 'tis hard to cheat  
Ulysses: Know we can the 
q The Plots defeat Of Mothers, although Goddesses.] Alluding to the Design of Thetis in concealing her Son Achilles, to prevent his going to the Trojan War, which by Ulysses was detected and defeated.  Plots defeat  
Of Mothers although Goddesses. Away  
With these vain shifts, and where thy Son is, say.   Andromache. 

Where's Hector? Priam? all the Trojans? You  
For one ask, I for all.   Ulysses. 

Torture shall screw,  
Since our Persuasions cannot gain a free,  
A forced Confession from thee.   Andromache. 

Alas she  
Is 'gainst the worst of Fate secured still,  
That die not only can, but aught, and will.   Ulysses. 
These Boasts at Death's approach will quickly fly.  Andromache. 

No, Ithacus; if me thou'dst terrify,  
Threaten me Life, for Death's my wish.   Ulysses. 

Fire, Blows,  
And Tortures shall enforce thee to disclose  
The Secrets of thy Breast." Ofttimes we see  
" Severity works more than Lenity.   Andromache. 

Doom me to Flames, dissect with Wounds, and try  
All torturing Arts that witty Cruelty  
Did ere devise; Thirst, Famine, all Plagues, through  
My Bowels burning Irons thrust; or move  
Me up in some dark noisome Dungeon: And  
(If yet you think not these enough) command  
Whatever Cruelties on captived Foes  
A haughty barbarous Victor dare impose:  
No Tortures e'er shall a Confession wrest,  
Nor Terrors daunt my stout Maternal Breast.   Ulysses. 

This obstinate Love thou to thy Child dost bear  
Warns all the Greeks to like Parental Care.  
After a War so far, so long, loss I  
Should fear the Ills Calchas does prophecy,  
Feard I but for myself: but 'tis not us  
Thou threat'st alone, but my 
r My Telemachus.] Telemachus was the Son of Ulysses and Penelope, born a little before he went to the Trojan War, who therefore (according to Eustathius in ●…. Odyss.) at his parting gave him that Name, as desiring he might lead his Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, far from the hazards of War and Battles, which he himself was unfortunately enforced then to undergo.  Telemachus.   Andromache. 

And must I comfort then afford my Foes  
Against my will? I must.— Sorrow disclose  
Thy hidden Griefs. Now ye Atrides cheer!  
And be thou still to Greeks the Messenger  
Of happy News, Great Hector's Son is dead.   Ulysses. 
Where be the Proofs may make this credited?  Andromache. 

So fall on me what e'er the Victor's Rage  
May threat; so Fates to my maturer Age  
An easy close; and where I had my Birth  
Afford me Burial: So may the Earth  
Lie light on Hector's Bones, as he bereaved  
Of Light lies 'mongst the Dead, and hath received  
The dues of Funeral.   Ulysses. 

Fate's in his Fate  
Accomplished, and firm Peace to Greece, then straight  
Pronounce, Ulysses.— Stay, fond Man, what dost?  
Shall Grecians thee, and thou a Mother trust?  
Perhaps she feigns, nor fears her dreadful Curse.  
Fear Imprecations they that fear nought worse.  
Sh'as sworn 'tis true; if so, than her Son's loss  
What can she fear to her a heavier Cross?  
Now summon all thy slights together; be  
Wholly Ulysses. Truth's ne'er hid long. We  
Must sift her throughly.— See, she weeps, sighs, mourns,  
With anxious steps, now this, now that way turns.  
And our words catches with a heedful Ear;  
We must use Art, she does not grieve, but fear.   

That with the sorrows of some Mothers we  
Condole 'tis fit, but we must gratulate thee,  
Happy in misery and thy Son's loss!  
For whom a heavier Death intended was,  
Who from that lofty Tower which now alone  
Remains of Troy was destined to be thrown.   Andromache. 

My Heart faints, Fear shakes all my Joints, a cold  
Congealing Frost upon my Blood lays hold.   Ulysses. 

See, see, she trembles; this must be the way.  
Her Fears a Mother's Love in her betray.  
I'll fright her further yet.— Go, search with speed  
This Foe, that by his Mother's Fraud is hid,  
This only Plague of Greece; find him where e'er  
He lies.— So, have y'him? bring him here.  
Why look'st thou back and tremblest?— Now he dies.   To himself. Andromache. 

Would God this Fear from present grounds did rise;  
'Las, 'tis with us habitual." The Mind  
" From what it long hath learned is late declined.   Ulysses. 

Since thy Sons better Fate prevented hath  
The Lustral Sacrifice, thus Calchas saith,  
Our Fleet may hope return if we appease  
With Hector's Ashes the incensed Seas,  
And raze his Monument unto the Ground.  
Now since the Son by death a way hath found  
To scape the Justice of his destined doom,  
We must exact it from his Father's Tomb.   Andromache. 

What shall I do? my Mind a double Fear  
Distracts; here my poor Child, the Ashes there  
Of my dear Husband. Which shall I first prize?  
Bear witness ye relentless Deities,  
And thy blessed Manes, real Gods to me!  
Nought, Hector, in my Son I pleasing see  
But thyself only: Long then may he live  
Thy Representative.— And shall I give  
My Husband's Ashes to the Waves? O'er vast  
Seas suffer that his rifled Bones be cast?  
Let t'other rather die.— And canst thou be  
Spectatress of thy own Child's Tragedy?  
See him thrown headlong from the Tower's steep height?  
I can and will, rather than Hector yet  
Be after death the Victor's Spoil again.  
Think yet this lives, hath sense, can feel his pain,  
Whilst t'other Fates from Ills secured have.  
Why staggerest thou? resolve straight which to save.  
Ingrateful, doubtest thou? there thy Hector is.  
Mistaken Wretch, either is Hector: This  
Yet young and living, who in time may be  
Th'Avenger of his Father's death.— Still we  
Cannot save both.— Resolve o'th' two howe'er  
To save him yet whom most the Grecians fear.   Ulysses. 

The Prophet's words shall be fulfilled; the place  
I will demolish.   Andromache. 
Which ye Sold-  Ulysses. 

Deface  
The Monument.   Andromache. 

The Faith of Gods and thee,  
achilles', we appeal to. Pyrrhus, see  
Thy Father's Gift made good.   Ulysses. 

Down it shall go,  
And with its Ruins the wide Champain strew.   Andromache. 

No Wickedness ye Greeks have you refrained,  
But this alone; Temples you have profaned,  
And Gods propitious to you; yet ye you spared  
The Mansions of the Dead. I amprepared  
To hinder their intent, and will oppose  
With weak unarmed Hands these armed Foes.  
Anger and Indignation strengthen me!  
Penthesilea like I'll 'mongst them fly,  
Or 
s Mad Agave.] Daughter of Cadmus and Hermione, Wife of Echion, and Mother of Pentbeus Prince of Thebes, an Enemy to the Bacchanalian Festivals. Whereupon his Mother Agave, distracted with the fury of Bacchus, together with her Sisters, supposing him a wild Boar, fell upon him, and transfixed him with their Javelins, then cut him in pieces. See the Fable at large in Ovid: Metam. l. 3. and Hyginus de Fab. c. 184.  mad Agave, that the Woods did trace,  
Shaking her Thyrsus with a frantic pace,  
Dealing dire Wounds insensibly, and by  
Defending bear his Ashes company.   Ulysses. 

What does a Woman's passion move your hearts,  
And vainer Cries? On Slaves, and ply your parts.   Andromache. 

First by your bloody hands let me be slain.  
Up from Avernus! break thy fatal Chain;  
Rise, Hector, rise, Ulysses to subdue,  
Thy Ghost alone will be sufficient. View  
How Arms he brandishes! how Flames do fly  
From his stout Hands! See y'him? Or is it I  
That see him only?   Ulysses. 
Down with't to the Ground.  Andromache. 

What dost? wilt see one Ruin then confound  
Father and Son▪ Perhaps my prayers may yet  
Appease them; straight resolve, or else the weight  
O'th' falling Tomb will crush thy Child to death.  
First lose he any where his wretched Breath,  
Or e'er the Father the Son's ruin be,  
Or Son the Father's.— Thus, Ulysses, we  

t Low as thy Knees fall.] Supplicants among the Ancients, in grave and capital cases, were wont to embrace the Knees of those whom they supplicated; they conceiving a kind of Reverence due to those Parts; fortasse quia inest iis vitalitas, says Pliny: In regard, as he adds, on either side of them there is a certain Concavity or Hollowness, which if pierced lets out Life as if ones Throat were cut. And therefore, says he, H●…c supplices allingunt, ad haec manus tegunt, haec ut arras adorant. Hence the supplicating Formulae, Per tua obsecro genua, Per haec genua te obtestor; of which in Brissonius l. 8. They used likewise, besides laying hold of the Knees with one Hand, to touch the Chin with the other; but this was peculiar only to the Greeks. It was usual likewise to lay their Hands by way of Submission under the Feet of those whose Mercy they implored, as is here intimated, and sometimes to kiss them. Some give the reason of these different Applications, for they touched the Head, Beard, or Chin, quando consensum expetebant. The Hands quaado Auxilium the Knees quando felicem successum rerum, says Schmidius in Pindar. Nem. Od. ●…. The jews used to put their Hand under the Thigh of him whom they craved favour from. To these submissive Deportments they added their Tears; whence that of Claudian. de Rapt. Proserp. l. 8. 

— Genibúsque suas cum supplice metu  
Admovere manus.—   But of this see more in Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 2. c. 19 and his learned Commentator Tiraquel▪ Stuckius de S●…rif. Gentil. p. 87. La Cerda in Virg. 〈◊〉. 3. & 10. and josephus Laurentius in his Polymathia l. 1. dissert. 27. where the several Circumstances relating to this matter are particularly handled.  Low as thy Knees fall, and beneath thy Feet  
These Hands (which yet no Man's e'er touched) submit.  
Pity a Mother's woes, with patience hear  
Her pious plaints, and lend a gentle Ear.  
" an how much higher Heaven hath advanced thy state,  
" So much the less depress a Wretch's fate.  
" When to the Miserable we extend  
" Our Charity, we unto Fortune lend.  
So to the chaste Embraces of thy Wife  
May'st thou in peace return, and Fates the life  
Of old Laertes till that day extend.  
So may thy Son, thy Age's hope, transcend  
Thy hopes and wishes, live more Years to see  
Than hath his Grandsire, wiser prove then thee.  
O pity! all my comfort's in this Boy.   Ulysses. 
Produce him first, than what you ask enjoy.   

SCENE III.  

Ulysses,  
Andromache,  
Astyanax.   Andromache. 

FOrth from the hollow Entrails of the Tomb  
Thou wretched Theft of thy sad Mother come!  
The Terror of a thousand Ships here see,  
Ulysses, this poor Child! down on thy Knee,  
Thy Lord with humble reverence adore,  
And Mercy with submissive hands implore.  
Nor think it shame for Wretches to submit  
To what e'er Fortune will; the thoughts now quit  
Of thy great Ancestors, nor Priam call  
To mind, nor his great Power; forget it all,  
And Hector too: assume a Captives state.  
And though unsensible of thy own fate,  
Poor Wretch, thou be, yet from our sense of woes  
Example take, weep as thy Mother does.  
'Tis not the first time Troy hath seen her Prince  
Shed tears: so Priam, when a Child long since  
The wrath of 
v Stern Alcides pacified.] Hercules having taken Troy, and slain Laomedon, gave his Daughter Hesione to Telamonius, with further assurance, that those among the Captives, whom she should desire to be released, should be granted her. Whereupon she desired that her Brother 〈◊〉 then a Child should be given her. Hercules replied, that he was then to be made a Slave. Upon which pulling off her rich Veil from her head, she therewith ransomed him. Whence he was afterward called ●…iamus, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. from his being so redeemed, and was by Hercules not only restored to his Liberty, but also to his Kingdom. See 〈◊〉 Fab. 89. and Apollodorus Biblioth. l. 2. and Tzetzes in Lycophro●…. But Diodorus Siculus lib. 4. reports, that he was restored to his Kingdom by Hercules, for the Justice and Kindness shown to Hercules his Ambassadors, whom his Father had imprisoned, to whom he afforded the means of making their Escape. For which Hercules, after he had taken Troy, and slain Laomedon, seated him on his Father's Throne.  stern Alcides pacified;  
He who so fierce was, who in strength outvyed  
Even Monsters, who from Hell's forced Gates could yet  
Through ways impervious open a Retreat:  
Quelled by the Tears of his small Enemy;  
Resume (says he) thy former Royalty,  
And in thy Father's Throne and Empire reign.  
But Faith more firmly than he did, maintain.  
Happy that such a Victor him did seize!  
Learn thou the gentle wrath of Hercules.  
Or only please his Arms? See 'fore thine eyes  
No less a Suppliant than that Suppliant lies;  
And begs but only Life, his Crown and State  
He leaves to Fortune and the will of Fate.   Ulysses. 

Trust me the Mother's Sorrow moves me much,  
But nearer me the Grecian Mother's touch,  
To whose no little Grief this Child aspires.   Andromache. 

And shall he then the Ruins which these Fires  
Have made, repair? these Hands erect Troy's Fall?  
Poor are the hopes she has if these be all.  
We Trojans are not so subdued, that yet  
We should to any be a Fear: is't Great  
Hector in him you look at? think withal,  
That Hector yet was dragged 'bout Ilium's Wall.  
Nay he himself, did he now live to see  
Troy's Fate, would of an humbler Spirit be.  
" Great Minds by pressures of great Ills are broke.  
Or would you punish? Than a Slavish Yoke  
What to free Necks more grievous? let him bring  
His Mind to serve. This who'll deny a King?   Ulysses. 
Not we, but Calchas this denies to thee.  Andromache. 

O thou damned Author of all Villainy!  
Thou by whose Valour none yet ever died,  
Whose Treacheries the Greeks themselves have tried.  
The Prophet and th'abused Deities  
Dost thou pretend? No, 't' thine own Enterprise,  
Thou base Night-Souldier. Thou whose Manhoods proof  
The Sun ne'er witnessed; only stout enough  
To kill a Child: Now thou may'st brag and say,  
Thou hast dared something yet in open day.   Ulysses. 

Enough the Greeks, too well the Trojans, know  
Ulysses worth; but time we cannot now  
Spend in vain talk. The Fleet does Anchor weigh.   Andromache. 

Yet so much time afford us, as to pay  
A Mother's last dues to my dying Boy;  
And by our strict Embraces satisfy  
My greedy Sorrows.   Ulysses. 

Would our power could give  
Thy woes relief; yet what we can receive,  
As long a time as thou thyself shalt please  
To part and weep." Tears Sorrow's burden ease.   Andromache. 

O thou sweet Pledge of all my hopes! the Grace  
Of a now ruined, but once glorious Race!  
Terror of Greece! the Period of all  
Thy Country's Ruins! her last Funeral!  
Vain Comfort of thy wretched Mother, who  
(Fond God knows) of Heaven did often sue,  
Thou mightst in war thy Father equalise,  
In peace thy Grandsire; but Heaven both denies.  
The Ilian Sceptre thou shalt never sway,  
Nor shall the Phrygian Realms thy Laws obey,  
Nor conquered Nations stoop thy Yoke to bear.  
The Greeks thou ne'er shalt foil, nor Pyrrhus e'er,  
T'avenge thy Sire, at thy proud Chariot trail:  
Nor with light brandished Arms wild Beasts assail  
In the wide Forests: nor, when e'er it falls,  
Shalt solemnize Troy's chief of Festivals,  
And 
x Well trained Troops in noble Motions lead] This was that kind of Exercise which was called Troja, proper to the Phrygians, being an imitation of a Fight on Horseback, with nimble motions and turnings in exact time and measure; which Ascanius is said to have instituted at his building of long Alba, in commemoration of what was used to be practised in his Native Country, and is described by Virgil Aeneid 5. This Servius will have to be the same with that which they call the Pyrrhic Dance, but erroneously, as Meursius in his Orchestra, and Salmasius in Exerc. Plinian have noted. For the Pyrrhic Dance was Saltatio Pedestris, this Lusus Equestris; the former was performed by Men and Women mixed together on Foot; the later only by Youths on Horseback. The former was invented by Pyrrhus' Son of Achilles, or Pyrrhicus the Lacedaemonian; the other not invented, but renovated by Ascanius. La Cerda from the Authority of Wolfang. Lazius, conceives the Original of Tournaments to come from this Trojan Exercise, and to be called Torneamenta, quasi Trojamenta, with what probability let the Reader judge.  well trained Troops in noble Motions lead:  
Nor 'bout the sacred Altars nimbly tread;  
And when exciting Notes shrill Cornets sound,  
In 
y In Phrygian Temples dance an antic round.] Dancing was a part of the Religious Worship of the ancient Ethnics. What kind of Dance yet is here particularly meant is not easily determined; unless it be that which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, being a lofty kind of Dance, and seems to be appropriated to the Honour of Apollo, as Meursius in Orchestra, from the Authority of Menander the Rhetorician, tells us; and was so called, because they sung and danced about the Altar while the Sacrifice was burning. Which Dance was thus ordered: First they moved from the left hand to the right, then from the right they turned again to the left. The former Motion was in imitation of that of the Zodiac, the later in conformity to that of the Heavens Lastly, they danced and skipped round about the Altar. And this was done in a mixed Company of Men and Women, according to the Testimony of Athenaus l. 14. But perhaps here is rather meant the Saltatio Corybantia, in horror of Cybele the Phrygian Goddess, who was particularly affected with those kinds of Measures; of which see Lucian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, De Saltatione.  Phrygian Temples dance an antic round.  
A Death than Death itself more sad, for thee  
Remains; and Trojan Walls shall something see  
More woeful yet than Hector dragged.   Ulysses. 

Here close  
Thy mournful plaints; immoderate sorrow knows  
No bounds.   Andromache. 

The time we for our Tears demand  
Alas is small; permit yet with this Hand  
I close his Eyes in life though not in death.  
Dear Child, although so young thou lose thy breath,  
Yet thou diest feared. Go, thy Troy looks for thee;  
Go, and in freedom thy free Trojans see.   Astyanax. 
O pity, Mother!  Andromache. 

'Las, why dost thou wring  
My Hand, and to my Side (vain refuge!) cling?  
As when a sucking Fawn a Lion spies,  
Or roaring hears, straight to the Hind it flies:  
Yet the fierce Beast frighting the Dam away,  
With murdering Fangs seizes the tender prey.  
So from my Bosom will the cruel Foe  
Drag thee, poor Child! Yet (Dearest) ere thou go  
Take my last Kisses, Tears, and this torn Hair;  
Then to thy Father full of me repair.  
Tell him, if former passions Ghosts do move,  
Nor Funeral Flames extinguish those of Love,  
Hector is much to blame, to let his Wife  
Enthralled by Greeks, thus lead a Servile Life,  
Though he lie still, achilles' yet could rise.  
Take from my Head again, and from my Eyes,  
These Tears and Tresses; all that now is left  
Andromache, of Hector since bereavest.  
These Kisses to thy Father bear from me:  
But leave this Robe, that may some Comfort be  
(When thou art gone) to thy poor Mother; this  
Did thy Sire's Tomb and sacred Ashes kiss:  
So shall these Lips, if any Relics here  
Of their loved Dust, yet unshook off, appear.   Ulysses. 

She'll ne'er have done;—" Grief knows not what is fit.  
Bear hence this stop of the Argolic Fleet.   CHORUS. 

WHat Seats shall We poor Captives find?  
Where are our new Abodes designed?  
Planted in 
x Hilly Thessaly.] A most celebrated, but hilly Region of Greece, wherein are the Famous Mountains of Ossa, Pelion, and Olympus, on the North; Oeta, and Othrys on the South; and Pindus, on the West, anciently called Pelasgia; by which name, and Pelasgion Argos, it is only known in Homer. And therefore Seneca here, and other Writers, who make mention of Thessaly, within the compass of the Trojan times, do it by a kind of Prolepsis, as is noted by Pinedo, upon Steph. de Urbibus, in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. It is known in Poetical Stories, by several Names, being called Pyrrhaea, from Pyrrha, the Wife of Deucalion; as Pandora, from his Mother; Aemonia, from Haemon; Nesonis, from Neson, the Son of Thessalus; and from Thessalus, the Son of Haemon (according to Strabo l. 9) or (according to Diod. Siculus l. 4.) of jason and Medea, Thessalia. It was anciently divided into four Parts, Phthiotis, 〈◊〉, Thessaliotis, and Pelasgiotis. The Modern vulgar Names, by which it is known, are divers; being by Castaldus called, Comenolitari; by Antonius Geufraus, Theumenestia; by Lazius, Lamina, as both Orte●…us and Ferrarius affirm. But the most vulgar name, by which, (according to Brietius) it is known amongst the Turks (now Lords thereof) is janna.  hilly Thessaly,  
Or shady 
y Shady Tempe.] A most pleasant part of Thessaly, lying in a delightful Valley, through which the River Penéus glides, hemmed about by Hills and Woods, elegantly described by Aelian (Var. Hist. l. 3. c. 1.) here called Opaca Tempe, and by Statius, and Lucan, Umbrosa, Nemorosáque Tempe: Its name, according to the excellently-learned Doctor Isaac Vossius, Observ. in Melam, being derived à regione loci. And therefore Mela thus speaks of it, Hic sacro Nemore nobilia Tempe. For à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and by contraction, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and thence, according to the Aeolic Dialect. changing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, signifies lucum vel fanum; where the People offered Sacrifice, and performed divine Rites continually. Which unintermined Worship of the Gods (to use Aelian's words) made the place sacred.  Tempe shall we be?  
Or sent to 
z Phthia.] A City and Region of Thessaly, so called, according to Stephanus, de Urb. from Phthius, the Son of Neptune and Larissa, the birthplace of Achilles, whence, by Horace, he is called Phthius Achilles, famed for the breeding of good Soldiers. Palmerlus, (in Exerc. p. 404.) from the Authority of Pausanias, tells us, that anciently, there were two Phthia's, one in Thessaly, of which Protesilaus was Prince, whose Inhabitants were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The other, in Achaia Phthiotide, whose Inhabitants were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, of which Achilles was Lord. To confirm which, he citys the Author of the brief Scholia's upon Homer. Iliad. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Phthia's rugged Fields?  
Phthia, which stoutest Soldiers yields.  
Or stony 
a Stony Trachin.] A City of Phocis, according to Strabo; according to Stephanus, of Thessaly, seated under Mount Oeta, built by Hercules, and so called, from the roughness and asperity of its soil and situation.  Trachy's? fitter Place  
For Cattle of a hardy Race.  
Shall us 
b jolchos] A City of Thessaly, so called from jolchus the Son of Acyrus, the Birth-place of jason, from whence he with the Minya set sail in the first Ship Argo, under the Conduct of Typhis, for the Golden Fleece, as the Poet's fable. Though to speak trulier, the Argonauts set sail from Pagasae, the Port where Argo was built, and not from jolchus, which was seated within the Land 30 stadia, di ●… an't from the Sea or the Pagasaean Bay. It's modern name is jaco. according to the Testimony of Ferrarius.  jolchos entertain,  
Proud in the Conquest of the Main?  
Or Crect, whose spacious Land is round  
With 
c Crect, etc.] An Island in the Mediterranean Sea, more known than that it needs here to be described; heretosore from the number of its Cities called Hecatompolis.  hundred of fair Cities crowned?  
Or barren 
d Tricca.] A City of Thessaly, so denominated from Tricca the Daughter of Peneus; (at this day called Tricala, according to Sophianus) an Episcopal See under the Metropolitan of Larissa: And in nothing more famous, than that Heliodorus (the incomparable Author of The Fair Aethiopian) there sat Bishop in the time of Arcadius and Honorius Emperors; the Honour of which he is said rather to have parted with, than with the Reputation of having been Author of that most 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Piece, if we may believe Nicephorus. The truth of which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much doubted of by the Learned Monsieur Huetius, in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l'Origine des Romans.  Tricca? small 
e Gyrton.] A City of Macedonia in the Region of Stymphalia, not far from the Lake and City of Lychnidus, to the East; by Strabo called ●…blegyiae, by Pausanias, Andreis, at this day Tachi Volicati, according to Nardus, as Ferrarius testifies. The Vulgar Editions have in the Original Gortyne, but we are beholding to Gronovius for this truer reading.  Gyrton?  
Or 
f Modon.] A City of Peloponnesus on the borders of Messenia Southwest, heretofore called Metbone, at this day by the Turks, Moytune, part of the Territories of Philoctetes, according to Homer Iliad. 2. and 〈◊〉 l. 9 at this time in a flourishing condition, being a Praefectship of the Turks, and a Bishop's See under the Archbishop of Patras. There is another Metbone of Thrace, which Stephanus confounds with this; but see the Error rectified by Pinedo.  Modon with light Bends o'ergrown?  
Or the 
g Th' Oetoean Woods recess.] Melibae●… a City seated in the recess of a large Bay at the foot of the Mountains Ossa and Pelion, and within the Promontory sepias, according to Mela l. 2. c. 3. ennobled by the Birth of Philoctetes, to whom Hercules bequeathed his fatal Shafts that were to be employed against Troy, (built by Magnes the Great-Grand-Son of Aeolus, and Father of Hymenaus, according to Antonius Liberalis) and so called from the Name of his Wife, as Eustathius in Iliad. 2. testifies.  Oetoean Woods Recess,  
Which more than once to Troy's Distress  
Shafts Fatal sent? Or must we store  
Thin-peopled 
h Thin-peopled Olenos.] A City of Achaia so called from Olenus the Son of jupiter and Anaxilea, one of the Danaides according to Stephanus, from the Authority of Ister in Egypt. Coloniis. Or as others will, from Olenos the Son of Vulcan, its Founder; here said to be thin-peopled. Which answers to what Pausanias in Achaic. writes of it, where he says, That it appears by the Elegies of Hermesianax, that it was from the beginning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, but a small Town; and in process of time deserted by its Inhabitants, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by reason of its debility. For we find, that in Strabo's time it was totally deserted, being transferred to Dymae, the Ruins thereof (as he says) appearing between Patrae and Dymae. There is likewise another place in Aetolia, of the same name, mentioned by Homer Iliad. 2.  Olenos with more?  
Or unto 
i Pleuron] A City of Aetolia, by Statius (●…heb. l. 4.) called Meleagria Pleuron, as if by him built, or rather because he was there born. Strabo l. 10. says, there were two Cities of the same name, the Old and the New; his words are to this purpose: Near to Aracynthus the Inhabitants built the new Pleuron, leaving the old, which lay near to Calydon, in a fertile and plain soil, when that Region was wasted by Demetrius surnamed Aetolicus. It is at this day called Bozichistran, (according to the Testimony of S. Gall) in a Manuscript of Cardinal Barberine's Library, cited by Baudrand. in Ferrar. Diana was an Enemy to this Town, in regard Oeneus, when Prince thereof, sacrificing of the first fruits of his Land to the Celestial Deities, omitted her: whereupon she sent the Calydonian Boar to waste and ravage his Country; of which the Fable is sufficiently known in Ovid. Met. l. 8.  Pleuron shall wego,  
Pleuron the Virgin Diane's Foe?  
Or to fair-harboured 
k Fair harboured Trazen.] The Original of this Town is much to this effect delivered by Pausanias in Corinthiac. Hyperes and Anthas Sons of Neptune and Alcyone, Daughter of Atlas, founded in Peloponnesus two Towns, called after their names Hypere●… and Anthea. Afterwards Traezen and Pitheus Sons of Pelops, having their Seats in the neighbouring Territory, soon made themselves Masters of the said Towns; and Pitheus' uniting them into one City, gave it the Name of Traezen from his Brother Traezen, not long before deceased; being also called Aphrodisias, Saronica, Posidonias, and Apollonias, as is mentioned by Stephanus de Urbibus. It's Situation according to Strabo being 15 stadia from the Sea, where it hath a fair Port, heretofore called Portus Saronicus, and Pogonus, in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying a Beard; whence grew the Proverb of sending Beardless people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, unto Traezen; of which see Suidas in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Traezen at this day according to Niger is vulgarly called Damala, according to Castaldus, Pleda.  Traezen get?  
Or 
l Pelion.] A noted Mountain of Thessaly contiguous to Ossa and Olympus, at this day (according to Io. Tzetzes) called Petras, which Dica●…rcbus Siculus (as liny l. 2. reports) sound, by the measure of its Perpendicular, to be 1250 Paces higher than any other Mountain of Thessaly, though Pliny seems withal to doubt the truth of this Assertion.  Pelion, 
m Prothous proud seat.] The Vulgar Latin Editions have instead of Prothous Proteus, but erroneously; which error Gronovius by the help of the Florentine Manuscript hath rectified. Prothous was Commander of the Magnetians in the Trojan War, mentioned by Homer Iliad. 2. in these Verses. 

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.   

Prothous, Teuthredon's Son, the Magnets led,  
Near Peneus and shady Pelion bred.    Prothous proud Seat?  
Third step to Heaven, where Chiron laid  

n In's Cell, which eating Time had made.] The Original hath, montis exesi antro; where we may take notice of the different acceptions of the words antrum, caverna, and spelunca. As to the first we find according to Ammonius, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a spontaneous or natural Cavity. The difference between caverna and spelunca some make to be this, that the former is made by cutting into a Rock, the other an accidental foramen of the Earth. Others will have the former to be natural, and the later artificial or the work of hands. So Ammonius, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Now which of these was this Cell of Chiron, Statius in 1. Achilleid. will best inform us, where he thus describes it: 

— Domus ardua montem  
Perforat, & certo suspendit Pelion Arcu,  
Pars exhausta manu, partem sua ruperat ●…tas.   Where we see the Poet's Ingenuity hath united and reconciled the several differences.  In's Cell, which eating Time had made  
In the Hills side, oft used to whet  
His 
* Achilles.  Pupil's Courage, (than too great)  
By singing to his Harp's tuned strings  
Battles and bloody Bicker?  
Or make 
o Carystus.] A Maritime City of Eubea, on the South of the said Island, at the foot of the Hill Ocha, looking to the Myrtoan Sea; so called from Carystus the Son of Chiron, whence (says Stephanus) by Theodoridas it is called Chironia, famous for rich Quarries of Marble, the most eminent and noted being that of a Sea-green colour, of which Statius; — concolor alto Venaemari— And elsewhere, — gaudens fluctus ●…quare (or fluctu cer●…are) Carystus. As Salmasius (Notis in jul Capitolin.) reads and corrects the Verse.  Caristus, rich in veined  
Marble, with various colours stained?  
Or 
p Chalcis.] The chief City of Euboea, seated upon the Euripus, at this day called Negroponte, by the modern Greeks Egripos, by the Turks Egribis, as Leunclavius affirms; and so they call th●… Euripus upon which it is seated. Whence Sponius (in his Voyages) conceives the Original of that corrupt name Nigroponte to arise. For the Franks (as he notes) at their first coming into these parts, hearing the Islanders say when they went to this Town, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, i. e. to Egripos, from their misunderstood Dialect, and their corrupt pronunciation thereof, clapping the last letter in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the beginning of Egripos, they formed this name Negroponte. Which seems to afford a better Original of the name than that of the Italians, who call it Nigroponte, from I know not what Bridge of black stone, which never was nor is now to be sound. The old Chalcis seems to be so called according to Stephanus, from Comb the Daughter of Asopus, called likewise Chalcis; o●… as he says, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, from Brass-works or Boundaries there first set up: Or as Bochartus (in Chanaan l. 1. c. 13.) would rather have it from the Phoenician word ●…lakin, which signifies to divide, Quia medium spatium inter Chalci●…em & Baeoticam impetu maris divisum est, & per angustiam 〈◊〉, (says he) as Sicily from Rhegium, so called a rumpendo, which in Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Stephanus reckons up four other Cities of the same name; one in the Territory of Corinth, another in. Aetolia, a third in Syria, and a fourth in Scythia. See likewise Sam. Tenullius Notis in 〈◊〉. Chalcidens; in Nicomach. Arithm. p. 63, 64.  Chalcis, placed on a rough Shore,  
Where the swift 
q Euripus does roar.] A narrow Strait of the 〈◊〉 Sea, running with a violent Eddy between Boeotia and the Island Eub●…s, at this day called Stretto di Negroponte, famous for its wonderful Tides, of which Mela, Livy, Strabo, Pliny, Suidas, have written, but diversely; some reporting it to flow and ebb six times, some seven, some no less than 14 times in 24 hours. But no better Account can be given hereof, than what is delivered by a late Learned Jesuit Paul Babin, in a Letter of his inserted by Sponius, in his Voyage into the Levant, and confirmed by his own experience. According to whom the Euripus is said to have two sorts of Tides, the one regular and common with the Ocean, the other irregular and extraordinary; of which he gives this following Table, respecting the several phases of the Moon, viz. From the first day of the New Moon to the eighth following it is regular; from thence (beginning with the first Quarter) to the thirteenth day it is irregular, flowing 12, 13, or 14 times, and as often ebbing in 24 hours. From thence (about Full Moon) to the twentieth day following it is regular again. Then commencing with the last Quarter to the twenty sixth day it continues irregular; after that reassuming its regular course. So that in every Moon there are reckoned 11 days of ●…regular, and 18 or 19 days of regular motion. Of the Cause of this strange Effect, partly proceeding from Winds, partly from the Influence of the Moon and Eddy-like motions of the Ocean's intercepted waters in that narrow Strait, see the Observations of the most Learned Doctor Isaac Vossius, in McIam, l. 2. c. 7 p. 211.  Euripus does roar?  
Or shelter in 
r Calydnae] And Island seated by Strabo near Tenedos in the Aegean Sea. Hesychius places it not far from Rbodes: so called according to Stephanus from Calydnus the Son of Coelus. Others make two Islands of that name, among whom Lycophron in Cassandra, who from them brings the Snakes that murdered the Sons of Laocoon: as Quintus Smyrnaus likewise, lib. 12. who makes yet but one Island of it, and calls it Calydna: and Eustathius (ad Iliad. 2.) says it was called Calydnae plurally, as 〈◊〉 and Athen●…: being likewise called Calymna and Calymnia, famous for excellent Hone●…, according to Ovid. Met. l. 8. — Focus dá que meae Calydna: Whence Mell Calyd●…ium and 〈◊〉.  Calydnae find,  
Easily reached by any wind?  
Or 
s Gonoessa.] A City of Perrhibae●… according to Stephanus Hom. Il. 2. and Eustathius upon him makes it a Promontory of Pellene, or a City there seated, calling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, altam Gonoessam. By reason of which situation it is (as our Author adds) much exposed to Winds and Tempells. Pausanias' in Corinth. calls it Gonussa, and makes it a City seated above Sicyon; and in Acbaic. will have its true name to be Donussa, telling us that Pisistratus, or whoever was employed by him in collecting the scattered Verses of Homer together, through ignorance corrupted its name. Lycophro●… mentions it add vers. 869. upon which his Commentator Tzetzes makes it a City of Thessaly, and adds, that there was a Lake of the same name in Sicily, to which Menelaus in his wandering course was driven.  Gonoessa, which ne'er fails  
Of stormy Blasts and blustering Gales?  
Or to 
t Enispae.] A City of Arcadia, according to Stephanus, and (as he adds) by some made to be a City of Cletoria or Phocis, mentioned by Homer Iliad. 2. where he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which Statius (Thebaid. l. 4.) hath imitated, where it is by him called Ventosa Enispe. Pausanias' in Arcadicis writes, that it was by some reported to have been an Island in the River Ladon, as Statia and Rhipe were; but he censures it for a very Erroneous Opinion. Strabo l. 8. writes, that both Enispae and the other two were long before his time so utterly ruined, that no remains of them were possibly to be found.  Enispae shall we steer,  
Which Boreas angry Breath doth fear?  
For Sea-girt 
v Peparethos.] An Island in the Aegean Sea, one of the Cyclades over against the Coast of Magnesia, as Strabo l. 3. & 9 places it. Pliny l. 4. c. 12. places it over against Mount Athos; Athos (says he) ante se habet insulas quatuor, Peparethum cum oppido, quondam Euoenum dictam, for the noble Wine it yielded. It is by Ovid Met l. 7. celebrated likewise for its Fertility in Olives in this Verse; — nitidaeque ferax Peparethos Olivae. It is by Niger called Lemene, by Castaldus Saraquino, by others Opula. But part of its old name seems yet to adhere to it; for in the Vulgar Nautical Tables it is called Peperi, according to Ferrarius and Bau●…rand.  Peparethos stand,  
Which lies 'gainst 
x Acte's pointed Land.] In all the Latin Originals the Verse is thus read: — Atticâ pendens Peparethos or â. by an unexcusable Error in Seneca (as Gronovius censures it) as inconsisistent with Geographical exactness. This Delrius long since observed, and therefore instead of Attica supposes it might be better read Actia, from Act a Promontory and City of Magnesia, of which Stephanus in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Where he likewise adds, that Demetrius remembers by that name the Region and Shore by Mount Athos, over against which and Magnesia, Geographers place the Island of Peparethos. Which Conjecture grounded upon fair probability we have followed in our Version.  Acte's pointed Land?  
Or seek 
y.] A Maritime City of Attica seated between Megara and Portus ●…us, so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, ab adventu Cereri●…. For Ceres in search after Proserpina came thither, and was kindly received by Celeus; in requital of which she showed to his Son Triptolemus the way of sowing Corn▪ Though others report it was so called from Eleusis or Eleusi●… the Son of Mercury and Da●…ra, Daughter of Oceanus, whom some will have to be the Father of Triptolemus. At this day it is called Seps●…a, as Sophianus testifies, and famous for the Temple of C●…res, where the Elesinian Mysteries were celebrated, built by I●…ynus, and (as Strabo l. 9 reports) capable of as much company as any Theatre.  Eleusis through the Deep,  
Where 
z Silent Mysteries.] The Eleusinian Rites and Ceremonies were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 called Mysteria, and observed with so great secrecy, that it was death for any one to reveal them as is manifest by the story of Diagoras Melius his being for divulging them condemned by the Athenians, who offered a Talon of Gold to any to kill him, and two Talents to such as should bring him alive to Judgement. Of which Suidas in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. etc. Hence they are called Silent Mysteries, the particular description whereof the Reader may find in Meursius, who hath written expressly upon that subject, as Petrus 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. and Io. Fasoldus in his Gracorum veterum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  silent Festivals they keep?  
Or Ajax his 
a Ajax his true Salamine.] The Salamis or Salamine here meant is an Island near the Athenian Coast, with a City of the same name, here called Ajax his true Salamine, to distinguish it from the Salamine built by his Brother Teucer in Cyprus during his Exile. For as Velleius Paterc. tells us, Teucer non receptus à patre Telamon●…, ●…b segnitiem non vindicat●… fratris injuri●…, (he means the affront given by Ulysses about Achilles his Arms, the occasion of his death) Cyprum appulsus, cognominem patriae suae Salamina constituit. Which Cyprian Salamine is by Authors called Ambigua, quia dubitandum nomen Salaminis fecit, says Gronovius Observ. l. 1. c. 3. the Attic Salamine being the true Country of Ajax. And therefore by Manlius and Lucan (as well as by our Author here) the Epithet Ver●… is given to it by Horace, to the other that of Ambigua, in these Verses, Od. 7. l. 1. 

— certus enim promisit Apoll●…  
Ambiguam tellure nouâ Salamina futuram.   

Apollo certainly in a new Land  
Promised Ambiguous Salamine should stand.   The Island was anciently (according to Strabo) called Scirus, Cychre●…, and Pityussa. The modern name (as Ferrarius from the Authority of Sophianus reports) being Coluri.  true Salamine?  
Or 
b Calydon.] A City of Aetolia, where Dian●… was worshipped by the name of Laphria, who incensed against Oeneus for his neglect in sacrificing to her, sent the Calydonian Boar to waste his Country, slain by Meleager and Atalanta, of which see the Fable in Ovid. Met. l. 8. Pausanias' in Arcad. reports, that the two great Tusks of this Boar were kept in the Temple of Minerva in Alea, a Town of Arcadia, and were from thence by Augustus Caesar transported to Rome, one of them being extant in his time half an Ell in length.  Calydon, by a wild Swine  
His furious Mischiefs famed? Or make  
For 
c Bessa.] A Town of the Locrians, mentioned by Homer Iliad. 2. so called (according to Strabo l. 9) as being seated in a Heathy Plain.  Bessa and 
d Scarpbe.] Another City of the Locrians, seated upon a higher ground, so called (according to Strab●…) in regard the Fields and Country about it were thick beset with Woods and Fruit-trees. Whence Casaubon upon that place affirms the true name to be Tarphe. For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies densitas sylvarum. Of which Conjecture of his he is much opinionated, and maintains the former Name to be an inveterate error of the ancient Copies. Strabo in the same place likewise reports, that in his time it was called Pharyg●…, and that juno had there a Temple, and was thence called juno Pharyg●…. He adds further in his first Book, from the Authority of Demetrius Calatianus, that it was almost totally ruined by an Earthquake. But it seems some Relics thereof are yet remaining, and called Bondo●…iza, according to Moletius, apud Ferrarium.  Scarphe, where the Lake-  
Like 
e Titaressus.] Or, as the Greeks write it, Titaresius, a River of Thessaly, qui it Orcus, says Vibius Sequester. Strabo likewise (lib. 7.) writes, that it was anciently called Europus. It rises from the Mountain Titarus, and falls into Peneus, and by reason of the oily thickness of it Waters, mingles not with it, but swims upon it; Quem Stygiâ palude crescere quidam autumant, adds Vibius Sequester; thus described by Lucan, Pharsal. lib. 6. 

Solus in alterius nomen cùm ventrit undae  
Defendit Titaressus aquas; lapsusque supern●…  
Gurgite Penei pro siccis utitur arvis.  
Hunc fama est Styges manare paludibus amnem,  
Et capitis memorem fluvii contagia vilis  
Nolle pari, super●…que sibi servare timorem.   Thus rendered by Mr. Tho. May. 

Alone his stream pure Titaressus keeps,  
Though in a different-named Flood he creeps;  
And, using Peneus as his Ground, he flows  
Above: from Styx they say, this River rose,  
Who, mindful of his Spring, scorns with base Floods  
To mix, but keeps the reverence of the Gods.    Titaressus with dull Waves  
Creeping along, the Valleys laves?  
Or shall we at the last set down  
In 
f Pylos.] A City of Messenia, in Peloponnesus. Of which name Strabo and Stephanus reckon three Towns, whereof two seated upon the Sea-coast. One in Elis, at the foot of the Mountain Scollis; another in Messenia, near Coryphasium; a third in Arcadia; all in Peloponnesus. Every of which, the respective Inhabitants boasted to be the Country of Nestor. But the Nestorian Pylos was the Messenian, which was likewise called Nelea, by Pausanias; by Ptolemy, Abarinus; by Stephanus, Coriphasium; by Suidas, Spacteria; It's modern name, according to Sophianus, being Navarino; according to Niger, and the Italian Nautica●… Tables, (Teste Leunclavio) Zonichia.  Pylos, Aged Nestor's Town?  

g Pharis.] a City of Laconia, mentioned by Homer, in his Catalogue, or second Book of the Iliads, destroyed, as Pausanias writes, by the Lacedamonians, in the time of Teleclus, son of Archelaus, and Grandson of Agesilaus.  Pharis, 
h Jove's Pisa.] A City and Mountain, in the Olympic Plains, where jupiter had his Temple, which Hercules intending to destroy, was prohibited by Apollo's Delphian Oracle, in these words, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. Pisa Patri curae, etc. here therefore called Jove's Pisa, chiefly in regard of the Olympic Games there exercised. Which honour was the occasion of its ruin; for contesting with Elis, about the jurisdiction of celebrating the said Games, the incensed Eleans wrought at last its destruction; of which, see Pausanias, l. 5. & 6. Strabo (l. 8.) writes, that some made a doubt, whether there ever were such a City as Pisa, but allowed of the Fountain of that name, which, in his time, he says, was called Bisa.  Jove's Pisa, 
i Elis.] A City in the Region so called, not far from Olympia, which, though Seneca here makes to be coaeval with the time of the Trojan War, yet Strabo (lib. 8.) affirms the contrary, and says, it was not built in Homer's days, but long after, that is after the time of the Persian War. He asserts likewise, that all those Places in Peloponnesus, which Homer mentions, were not Cities, but Regions inhabited by several small Pagi, or Boroughs, out of which the Cities, bearing the names of the several Regions, were afterwards collected, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. And after this manner (says he) the Inhabitants of the several Pagi, or Boroughs, in the Region of Elis congregated themselves into one City, of the same name.  Elis see,  

k Adorned with wreaths of Victory.] That is, the Crowns gained by the Victors, in the Olympian Games there celebrated. These Crowns were of Olive-branches, yet not of every kind of Olive-tree, but of that only, which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, i. e. Oleaster, or the wild Olive. In process of time, they came to be of Gold; of which see particularly P●…scalius, De Coronis, l. 6. c. 18. 19 & 20. to spare the mentioning of ancient Authors, which Tiraquel (in Alex. ab Alex. l. 5. c. 8.) will point out to the more inquisitive Reader. And here Seneca again seems to speak proleptically, and by way of anticipation. For Strabo. (lib. 8.) affirms, that these Games were not in use in the time of the Trojan War, nor this manner of crowning the Victors then practised, and that Homer makes no mention of them; those by him mentioned being only Funeral Games, or such like solemn Exercises.  Adorned with Wreaths of Victory?   

Let any Winds our Canvas fill,  
And bear us to what Lands they will,  
So we poor Wretches 
l Sparta.] The principal City of Laconia, called likewise Lacedaemon, the birthplace of Helena, at this day called Mysithr●…, whose modern condition see described by Monsieur de Guille●…iere, in his Lacedaemone Ancienne et Nouvelle.  Sparta miss,  
That bred the Bane of Troy and Greece;  
So we at least from 
m Argos.] There are three Cities of this name. The first, Argos Peloponnesiacum, the chief City of Argia, at this day called Argo; the second Argos Amphilochium, in Epirus, at this day Anfilocha; the third, Argos Pelasgicum, at this day vulgarly called Armiro. The first is that which is hear meant. See Ortelius in Thesaur. Geograph. & Ferrar.  Argos run,  
So we the proud 
n Mycenae] A City of Argia, so called, from Mycenus, the Son of Sparto, or Mycenae, the Daughter of Inachus, as some will, or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Pommel of Perseus' Sword-hilt falling off there; or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, signifying likewise a Mushroom, which Perseus pulling up, there gushed out a spring of water, with which he quenched his thirst. Upon which accident he there built the City, and called it Mycenae, as Pausanias writes; or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, because Io, when turned into a Cow (as Stephanus De Urbicus) there first Lowed; the birthplace of Agamemnon; at this day called Agios Arrianos, according to Sophianus; by Niger, Charia; by Theve●…, Grebigni, as Ortelius testifies.  Mycenae shun.  
So we in 
o Neritos.] An Island not far from Ithaca and Zant, of which Virgil, Aeneid 3. makes mention in these Verses: 

— Medio apparet luctu nemorosa Zacynthos,  
Dulichiumque Sameque & Neritos ardua saxis.   There was a Mountain of the same name, in Ithaca, of both which Strabo speaks, lib. 10. citing the Authority of Homer.  Neritoes ne'er plant,  
Shorter and narrower the 
p Zant.] An Island in the Ionian Sea, lying against the Western coast of Peloponnesus, near the entrance of the Sinus Corinthiacus, anciently called Zacynthus, from Zacynthus, the Son of Dardanus (according to Stephaus). Pliny likewise affirming, that it was before that called Hyrie. It's length (according to Baudrand, in Ferrar.) is reckoned 25. Miles, its breadth 20. its circumference, 60.  Zant.  
So we ne'er reach the treacherous Bay,  
And Shoals of 
q Rocky Ithaca.] It is noted, (says Gryphiander, de Insulis) that the Poets, when they speak of small and stony Islands, call them Rocks, Sive quia scopulis suis munita, sive quia rem extem●…ant, & contemptiùs de ed loquntur: So Virgil. in. l. 3. Effugimus Ithaca scopulos, Lacrtia regna. Cicero, de Orator. 1. speaks very undervaluingly of the City so called, when he describes it to be in asperrimis scopulis, ceu nidulum, affixam. This Island is in circuit about 25 Miles, inhabited only by Exiles and Pirates; now vulgarly called Val de Compare. Yet Sponius, in his Voyages into the Levant, says it is called jatacho, and distant about six or seven Miles from Dulichium, or Thiaki, as the Modern Greeks now call it.  Rocky Ithaca.  

r Who Hecuba can tell thy Fate?] Hyginus, de Fabulis, c. 111. writes, that Hecuba, in her passage by Sea, through impatience of her grief, threw herself overboard into the Hellespont, and was transformed into a Bitch: The Fable arising from the acerbity and rage of her sorrow, which caused her to curse and revile all she met with, especially of the Greeks. To which Plautus, (in Me●…oechmo) alludes, Act, 5. Sc. 1. 

Hecuba (quod in nunc facis)  
Omnia mala ingerebat, quem quem aspexerat,  
Itaque adeo jure caepta appellari est Canis.   being stoned to death by the Thracians in Cherronesus, and a Tomb erected for her in the place, bearing the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or the Bitch's Monument, which Pliny places in front obliqu●… Mastusiae. (a Promontory of the Thracian Cherronesus, over against Sygaeum.) Strabo, between the City Dardanus, and Aby●…s, over against the Mouth of the River, Rhodius, in the same Cherronesus: Solinus, upon the Promontory of the Asian Sygeum; but falsely, as is observed by his learned Exercitator●… Salmasius. Cedrenus (in Histor. Compend.) reports, that she was stoned to death on Shipboard, by Ulysses and his Companions, and thrown into the Sea, near the Promontory Maronea, which from that accident they called Cynossema. Suidas (in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) writes▪ that Ulysses, coming to the Cape Maronea, and being prohibited by the Inhabitants from taking such necessaries as he wanted, landed his Men, and encountering with them, worsted them, where Hecuba, exercising her bitter and invective Language, was stoned to death by the Soldiers, who there buried her, calling the Place, The Bitc●…es Monument. Ovid. Metam. lib. 14. tells us yet the story otherwise, which there see. julius Pollux. (lib. 5. c. 5.) conceives this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be rather the Monument of some famous Dog: of which he gives several instances, as of Atalanta's and Xanthippus their Dogs, in Calydon and Salcmine; and Garg●…ius, Geryon's Dog, in Spain, who had their Monuments so called. Which conjecture seems not to displease the incomparable Observator upon Mela, p. 129.  Who Hecuba can tell thy Fate?  
(Of Queens the most unfortunate!)  
What servile Hardships shalt thou try?  
Where, or in whose Dominions die?     

ACT IU.  

SCENE. I.  

HELENA,  
ANDROMACHE,  
HECUBA,  
POLYXENA.   Helena. 

Where ever Hymen is unfortunate,  
On whom sighs, mourning, blood, and slaughter wait,  
There Helen's a fit 
s Helen's a fit Auspex.] The Ancients in contracting, or solemnising Marriages, were directed therein by the flight of Birds, or Augury: And the person that performed the Augurating Office was called Auspex. The Romans were very observant hereof for a long time; and though at length, they left off the custom of Augury, yet they still retained the Office of Auspexes. Of which thus Cicero, De Divinat. l. 1. Nihil fear quondam majoris rei, nisi auspicato, ne privatim quidem, gerebatur; Quod & nune Nuptiarum Auspices declarant, qui re omissâ, nomen tamen tenent. Wherefore Helena is here not unaptly introduced to be Auspex, at the unfortunate and tragical Marriage of Polyxena: She being by Lycophron (Advers 512. compared to the Fowl called Crex,— toro pessima semper Avis (to use the Words of Propertius) which we in English call a Daker-Hen, being a Waterfowl, held to be most unluckily ominous in Augury, especially as to Nuptials: Upon which, see his Commentator Tzetzes, Caverus, Meursius, and Dousa in Propert. l. 4. Eleg. 5.  Auspex, forced t'extend  
The Woes of ruined Troy beyond their End.  
False News of Pyrrhus Nuptials I must bear,  
Gems, and Greek Habits for his Bride to wear.  
Whilst (circumvented by my treacherous Wile)  
I Parish Sister of her Life beguile;  
And beguiled be she." 'Tis a Courtesy  
" Unprepossessed with fear of Death, to die:  
Why doubtest Thou to perform thy task?" On those  
" The Guilt of enforced Crimes lies, who impose.  
Thou Female Glory of the 
* to Polyxena.  Dardan Race!  
Heaven now begins to show a friendlier Face  
To the Afflicted; does a Mate provide,  
Such as not Priam could in all Troy's Pride.  
For thee to lawful Hymen's sacred Rites,  
The Chief of the Pelasgian Name, invites,  
Who rules wide Thessaly: thou 
t Tethys and Thetis.] Tethys and Thetis were two distinct Poetical Deities, Tethys being reputed the Daughter of Coelus and Tellus, and Wife of Neptune, or Oceanus, by whom she had Doris; Doris by Nereus had Thetis, who by Peleus had Achilles. So that Thetis was Grandchild to Tethys; as is manifest by this of Catullus; speaking of Peleus (in Epithalam.) 

Tene Thetis tenuit Pulcherima Neptunine!  
Tene suam Tethys concessit ducere Neptem?   See, in further Confirmation of this, Apollodorus. I. 1. c. 2.  Tethys, all  
The Watery Powers, thou, hers will Thetis call,  
The Seas mild Empress! Pyrrhus marry thee,  
Thou Niece to Peleus shalt, and Nereus be.  
Put off these sad, and Festive Habits take,  
Unlearn 〈◊〉 Captive art, and Captive make.  
Thy H●…r frightfully staring, recommand  
To order, by some curious Dressers Hand.  
This chance may raise thee to a better State;  
" Captivity hath made some Fortunate.   Andromache. 

Was this then only wanting to our Woes?  
This? To rejoice, when Troy in Ashes glows?  
O time for Nuptials fit! but who denies,  
Or doubts to Wed, when 
v Helen.] 〈◊〉 may not perhaps be altogether impertinent in this place to say something of the Name of Helen, which seems to be derived from the Accident of her Birth, her Mother being delivered of her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in Palude, as Ptolemaus Hephestion, l. 4. Nou. Histor. reports; her proper Name being Echo, which she gained from her notable cunning, in counterseiting the Voices of others. Of which Homer, as cited by the said Ptolemaus Hephestion says: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Agrivumm uxores imitata est vocibus omnes. She was likewise, as the same Hephestion writes, called L●…onta.  Helen does advise?  
Helen the Bane, the Ruin, and the Pest  
Of either Nation; See these Graves! where rest  
Their valiant Chiefs! These Fields! 'bout which are spread  
The bared Bones, sad Relics of their Dead.  
These, these, thy Marriage scattered, with a flood  
Of Europe's best, and Asia's bravest blood:  
Whilst thou at ease sawst both thy Husband's sight,  
Careless on which the Victory should light.  
Go then, and for these Wedding Joys prepare!  
For Nuptial Lights and Torches never care;  
Troy's Flames will those supply. Now Troades  
The Marriage Rites of Pyrrhus solemnize  
As they deserve; that is, with tears and cries.   Helen. 

Though mighty Grief no curb, no reason knows,  
But oft hates those are sharers in its Woes;  
Yet 'fore a Partial Judge can I defend  
My Cause; who suffer more than you pretend.  
Andromache for Hector, Hecuba  
For Priam, freely mourns; I closely pay  
My concealed Sighs for Paris. 'Tis severe,  
Hateful and sad, a servile Yoke to bear.  
Yet that have I endured, these ten years past.  
Your Household Gods are sacked; Ilium laid waste.  
To lose one's native Land, is a sad curse;  
To fear, like me, without Relief, yet worse.  
A fellow-sufferance does your Woes assuage.  
'Gainst me, the Victors both, and vanquished rage.  
Whom you must serve, Chance yet hath scarce designed,  
I'm sure, without a Lot, a Lord to find.  
You'll say I was to Troy the cause of War,  
And her sad Ruin. Take what you infer,  
To be a Truth; if you can prove that e'er  
A Spartan Ship me to your Coasts did bear.  
But if by Phrygians I a Prize was made,  
And to her Judge a Gift by Venus paid,  
Excuse then Paris. For our Cause, 'twill come  
'Fore a rough Judge; it waits Atrides Doom.  
But now, Andromache, thy Plaints laid by  
A while, to bow this resolute Virgin try.  
I scarce can hold from Tears.—   Andromache. 

The thing is sad  
That Helen weeps for; it must needs be bad.  
But wherefore weeps she? say! what new Deceit?  
What mischief plots Ulysses, that grand Cheat?  
Must from Idaean Rocks the Maid be cast?  
Or from this Tower, or yond Cliffs, into vast  
Seas hurled? where with his crooked and ragged side  
Lofty Sygaeum does imbay the Tide?  
Speak! What beneath thy looks sly veil is laid?  
No Ill, but's less, than Pyrrhus to be made  
To Priam Son in Law, and Hecuba.  
What Pains, what Torments, must we suffer? say!  
For this from our Woes sum may well be spared;  
To be deceived. To die, we're All prepared.   Helen. 

Would Heaven, the God's Interpreter had doomed  
Me to have died; and at Achilles' Tomb  
By Pyrrhus furious Hand t'have fallen! that I  
With thy sad Fate, Polyxena! might vie,  
Whom Thetis Son, (t'his Grave first victim made)  
Demands for Spouse in the Elysian shade.   Andromache. 

See how great joy does her high soul express  
At her declared death! Royal Robes and Dress  
Now she assumes, now yields t'adorn her head;  
To die she Marriage thinks, but Death to Wed.  
Her aged Mother yet at the Report,  
Is Thunder struck; nor more can Grief support,  
With this surcharge oppressed.— Courage! recall  
Your Life and Spirits, Madam?— On how small  
A Thread hers hang!— how little will suffice  
T'ease Hecuba of all her Miseries!  
She breathes, and comes t'her self again:— I find  
Death to the Miserable is unkind.   Hecuba. 

Yet lives Achilles to the Phrygians Woe?  
Yet does he plague us? Is he still our Foe?  
O Paris feeble Hand! his very Grave  
And Ashes thirst our wretched Blood to have.  
Once me a happy Troop of Children round  
On every side enclosed; enough I found  
T'impart to all my Kisses; nor could tell  
'Mong such a fair and numerous Issue, well  
How to divide a Mother. Now, there's none  
Left me but this, my sole Companion,  
My Joy and Comfort in Affliction  
This, this poor Girl; The last Remain of all  
Hecuba's Race! she only lives to call  
Me Mother.— Leave hard-tempered Soul my Breast!  
And this one Funeral after all the rest  
Remit at length to me. 
* to Polyxena.  She changes hue,  
A shower of Tears does her pale Cheeks bedew.  
Rejoice dear Child! gladly Andromache,  
Gladly Cassandra thus espoused would be.   Andromache. 

We, We poor Wretches, Hecuba, are most  
To be deplored; who must on Seas be tossed,  
Now here, now there, and God knows whither hurried!  

x She's happyy, etc.] The Author seems to have taken this from Virgil (as he from Euripides in Troad.) where (l. 3. Aeneid.) Andromache thus speaks: 

O foelix una ante alias Priamoeia Virgo!  
Hostilem ad Tumulum ●…rojaesub mnibus altis  
jussa mori; qu●… sortitus non pertulit ullos,  
Nec victoris He●…i tetigit Captiva Cubile.  
Nos Patrià incensâ, diversa per Aequora vectoe, etc.   

O thou of Priam's Daughters the most blessed!  
Who under Troy's high Walls felt Deaths Arrest  
At thy Foes Tomb! not drawn by Lot, or led  
Captive, to touch a Conquering Masters Bed.  
We, our Town burnt, through divers Seas are born, etc.    She's 
* Polyxena.  happy; by Fates destined to be buried  
In her own native Land.   Helen. 

You'd grieve yet more  
Did you but know what Lot's for you in store.   Andromache. 
Is of my Woes yet any Part unknown?  Helen. 
The Captives Dooms th'impartial Urn hath shown.  Andromache. 
Whose Slave am I? Whom must I Master call?  Helen. 
Unto the Scyrian Youth, by Lot you fall.  Andromache. 

Happy Cassandra! whom Prophetic Rage  
And Phoebus from the Lot does disengage.   Helen. 
She's Agamemnon's Prize.  Hecuba. 

Is Hecuba  
By any sought for?   Helen. 

You a short-lived Prey  
Are to Ulysses, 'gainst his will, become.   Hecuba. 

O who could be Dispenser of a Doom  
So cruel and tyrannical! that brings  
Queens to be Slaves to those that are not Kings?  
What God does so unluckily dispose  
Poor Captives? What stem Judge, unto our Woes  
Weight adding, does so little understand  
To choose us Lords? and with a rigorous Hand  
Deals such cross Fates to Wretches? What dire Lot  
T' Achilles' Arms does Hector's Mother put?  
Given to Ulysses!— Now indeed distressed  
I seem; with all Calamities oppressed.  
I shame at such a Lord, not Servitude.  
Must he then who Achilles' Spoils endued,  
Have Hector's too? And must the barren, small,  
And Sea-girt Ithaca give me Funeral?  
Lead, Lead, Ulysses, when you please; no stay  
I'll make, but follow thee, my Lord. And may  
My own Fates follow me. No calms assuage  
The angry Seas, let them with Tempest's rage.  
May Wars, Fire, mine, and Priam's Miseries  
Pursue you; and till those Plagues come, suffice  
It, this is sure: You have your Lot; I yet  
Have robbed you of all hoped for Benefit.   

But see with a precipitated Pace  
Where Pyrrhus comes? with fury in his Face.  
Pyrrhus, Why stopp'st thou in thy Bloody Race?  
Sheath in this Breast thy Sword: Let Death in fine  
Achilles' Father in Law and Mother join.  
Go on thou Murderer of the Aged! On!  
This Blood fits thee: To Execution  
Drag hence a Captive Wretch: And by so vile  
Abhorred a Slaughter, Gods above defile,  
And Ghosts below.— What, shall I pray for you?  
Seas to such dismal Sacrifices due.  
On your whole Fleet, your thousand Ships, like curse  
Fall, I wish that shall carry me, or Worse.   CHORUS. 

TO those that Mourn, 'tis sweet Relief,  
When Nations Sorrows echo to their Grief.  
Less felt is that Afflictions Sore  
Which numerous Sharer's mutually deplore.  
Sorrow is like Infection; loves t'obtrude  
It's-self upon a Multitude.  
And counts it some content,  
Not singly to Lament.  
There's none denies to bear that Fate  
All suffer under: in a common Woe  
None thinks himself unfortunate,  
Though he be so.  
Take hence the Happy, lay the Rich aside,  
Whose Gold, and Fertile Acres is their Pride,  
The Poor will raise their drooping Heads. There's none  
Miserable, but by Comparison.   

To those by great Calamities o'ertook,  
'Tis sweet to see none wear a cheerful look.  
Sadly that Man his Fate bewails,  

y In a Private Vessel.] In this manner, Titus first, afterwards Trajan punished the false Informers and Calumniators of their Times, by putting them into an empty Vessel alone, without any help or Companion, and so exposing them to Sea; Of which Pliny in Panegyr. ad Trajanum. Vide etiam Casaubon. in Sueton. p. 36.  Who in a Private Vessel Sails;   

And naked, helpless, and forlorn,  
Sinks in the Port to which his Course was born.  
Storms and his Fate, he bears with evener Mind,  
Woe sees a thousand Ships before him drowned,  
And all the Shore scattered with Wrecks does find,  
Whilst Waves by Corus dashed 'gainst Rocks resound.  
Phryxus for Helen's single loss complained,  
When 
z The Gold-fleeced Leader of the Flock, etc.] Seneca doubtless respected this Place of Manilius, l. 4. speaking of the Celestial Ram. 

Adserit in vires Pontum, quem vicerat ipse  
Virgin delapsâ, cùm sratrem adlittora vexit,  
Et rainui deflevit onus, dorsúmque levari.   What Manilius applied to the Ram, Seneca more suitably transfers to Phryxus.  by the Gold-fleeced Leader of the Flock  
They both were took  
(Brother and Sister) on his Back.  
And she in mid-Seas fell a help-less Wrack.  
Deucalion yet and Pyrrha, both refrained  
From Tears, when they the swelling Sea beheld,  
And nothing but the Sea that swelled:  
Of Lost Mankind, all that remained.   

But these sad meetings, these our mutual Tears  
Spent to deplore our miserable State,  
The Fleet, which ready now to sail appears,  
Will straight dissolve and dissipate.  
Soon as the Trumpets hasty sound shall call  
The Mariners aboard, and all  
With favouring Gales and Oars for Sea shall stand,  
When from our sight shall fly our dear-loved Land:  
What Fears will then our wretched Thoughts surprise,  
To see the Land to sink, and the Sea rise?  
When Ida's towering height  
Shall vanish from our sight;  
The Child shall then unto its Mother say,  
The Mother to her Child, pointing that way  
Which tends unto the Phrygian Coast;  
Lo! yonder's Ilium where you spy  
Those Clouds of Smoke to scale the Sky.  
By this sad sign, when all marks else are lost,  
Trojans their Country shall descry.     

ACT V.  

SCENE I.  

NUNCIUS,  
ANDROMACHE,  
HECUBA.   Nuncius. 

O Horrid, cruel, cursed Fates! What Crime  
Hath bloody Mars yet seen in Ten Years Time  
Like sad or barbarous! where shall I begin?  
With your Woes, Madam? Or yours, Aged Queen?   Hecuba. 

Whose Woes soe'er you tell, they're mine; each Breast  
Bears its own Griefs, but mine's with all oppressed,  
The universal sorrow: None can say  
He's wretched, but he's such to Hecuba.   Nuncius. 

The Virgin's sacrificed; and the Youth cast  
From the towers height: Both brave yet at the last.   Andromache. 

Relate the Series of their Deaths: declare  
This double Tragedy: I long to hear  
The sum of all my Griefs. Speak then, and show  
The entire compliment of all my Woe.   Nuncius 

A Tower yet stands; 
A Tower yet stands, etc.] This was Part of the Scaean Gate, famous in the Trojan Story above the other five (for Troy had six Gates) viz. the Antenorian, the Dardaui●…n, the Ilian, the C●…tumbrian, the Trojan; and the Scaean, which last, some will have so called quia in laeva urbis Parte sita. Some from the fatality of the Place, or sinistrous Consultations there had by the Trojans. Strab●…, l. 13. conceius it to be a Thracian Name, as Scius Amnis, etc. others conceive it so called, from its Builder: Serviu●… in 3. Aeneid. derives the Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Tentorio aut Tabernaculo: because the Sepulchral Monument of Laomedon was placed over it, which Etymology of Servius, though approved of by la Cerda, is yet by the learned Monsieur Bacheit, in his excellent (and not vulgarly known) Commentaries upon Ovid's Epistles, censured for a very extravagant one.  All now that's left of Troy,  
Whence, bearing in his Arms his Age's Joy,  
His little Grandson; Priam used to view  
His Troops, and order what those Troops should do.  
Thence, (when brave Hector in that glorious Fight  
What time the routed Greeks he chased in flight  
With Sword and Fire) to young Astyanax  
The old King showed his Father's valiant Acts.  
This noted Tower, once our Walls chiefest Grace,  
(Now a cursed Rock, and a detested Place)  
Huge crowds of Soldiers with their Troops surround.  
A Seaman scarce to guard their Fleet is found,  
All thither flock: To some a Hill does lend  
From far an open Prospect, some ascend  
The Rocky Cliffs, and there, eager to see,  
On Tiptoes stand. Some climb this neighbouring Tree,  
Some that: Th'adjoining Woods tremble to bear  
The numerous Spectators. Some there are  
Climb up steep Precipices, some bestride  
Ridges of half burnt Houses, others ride  
On pieces of the Broken Wall; and some,  
To see his Son's Death, get on Hector's Tomb.  
Ulysseses proudly stalks through all the throng,  
As Way was made; leading in's Hand along  
The Princely Youth; who makes no sluggish stop  
In this sad March; but gaining the Tower's top,  
Thence, here and there, with an undaunted Gest,  
Casts round his angry Eyes: Of foam fierce Beast,  
As a young tender Cub, not able yet  
To tyrannize with murdering Fangs, does threat  
And vainly snarls, and snaps, and swells with rage;  
The Princely Captive on this lofty Stage  
Like courage shows; and from all hearts does force  
Compassion; even Ulysses feels remorse.  
He weeps not yet for whom all else shed tears.  
Now whilst Ulysses (as 
* by Calchas.  enjoined) prepares  
His solemn Speech; and with set Prayers invites  
The cruel Gods to those more cruel Rites,  
He nimbly of his own accord, leaps down  
Amidst the Ruins of his State and Town.   Andromache. 

What Colchian, or what wandering Scythian,  
Or Hyrcan, bordering on the Caspian Main,  
That knows no Law, would such an Act have dared?  
Cruel Busyris butchering Altars, spared  
Yet children's Blood; nor ever Diomedes  
His Horses with the flesh of Infants fed.  
who'll take thy Limbs, and give them Funeral?   Nuncius. 

What Limbs could there be left by such a Fall?  
His Bones were crushed to pieces; Nor one Grace,  
Or mark was left in Body or in Face  
Resembling his Illustrious Father: All  
Were utterly defaced by the sad Fall.  
His Neck was broken. His Head 'gainst a Rock  
Encountering, dashed his Brains out with the knock.  
Nought but a shapeless Trunk he lay.   Andromache. 

Even so  
Too like his Father.   Nuncius. 

From this Scene of Woe  
The Greeks next, (weeping yet for what they'd done)  
To act another Crime as barbarous, run  
In haste t' Achilles' Tomb; whose farther side  

a Rhetaean, etc.] Pliny, Solinus, and Seneca place Achilles his Monument on the Rhetaean Promontory; But against the Authority of Strabo, and Poetical Story; by whom, (as by Lucian in Charonte,) it is seated on the Sigaean Promontory. See Salmasius in Solinum. p. 869. and Dr. Vossius in Melam. p. 98.  Rhetaean Waves beat with a Gentle Tide.  
Th' Extremes to that opposed, a Champaign Ground  
Invests; in th' midst of which a Vale is found,  
From whose low Edge a hilly Ridge ascends,  
And 'bout it like a Theatre extends.  
The Shoar is covered with the numerous Press.  
Some think this done in order to release  
Their Navies stop; some look on the Design  
As meant t'extirpate all Troy's Hostile Line.  
Most of the giddy Vulgar seem to hate  
The Act, they come to see and perpetrate.  
Trojans attend too; and with fearful Eyes  
Expect the last of all Troy's Tragedies.  
When straight, as at our solemn Marriage Rites,  
In head of all, are born the Nuptial Lights:  
Next Helen, as the Bride's sad Pronuba  
Comes with dejected mien; whilst Phrygians pray,  
So may Hermione wed; and so may she  
Returned with shame to her first Husband be.  
Trojans and Greeks are both with Horror struck,  
When forth the Princess comes; with submiss Look,  
But Cheeks that died in modest Blushes shine,  
More Beautiful in this her sad Decline.  
As Phoebus seems to cast a sweeter Light  
Now near his Set, when the approaching Night  
Invades the confines of the doubtful Day.  
The vulgar Minds are lost in strange Dismay;  
Who (as their Custom is) always commend  
Those who are going to their fatal End.  
Her Beauty some, others her Youth as much.  
Some the sense does of her changed fortune touch.  
All her high Spirit praise; that Death dares meet.  
Fearless, she outsteps Pyrrhus; whilst to see't,  
Some quake, some pity, some admire. Now come  
To the Lands Point, Pyrrhus his Father's Tomb  
Ascends; nor does the stout Virago shrink  
Or draw one Foot yet back, though at Death's brink,  
But with a stern look, Pyrrhus to provoke,  
Turns to receive the Sacrificing Stroke.  
Pity at once, and wonder all minds fill,  
Seing her so brave, and Pyrrhus slow to kill.  
Soon as his Hand into her tender Breast  
Had forced the murdering Steel, a full stream pressed  
Of bubbling Gore through the large wound: nor died  
Her Courage yet: she fell as though she tried  
T'oppress Achilles in his Grave, and force  
The Earth to lie yet heavier on his Corpse.  
Both sides, the Phrygians, and the Greeks lament:  
These timerously, their Sighs those louder vent.  
This was the Order of the Sacrifice.  
Nor on the Grounds hard Surface stagnant lies,  
Or floats in streams the sacrificed Blood;  
The thirsty Grave soon drunk up all the Flood.   Hecuba. 

Go, go ye Greeks! now seek your Homes again,  
With your winged Fleet securely plough the Main,  
The Royal Virgin, and the Youth are slain.  
The War's now ended.— Would my life were so.  
Where shall I bear this Burden of my Woe?  
How quit my Death's vivacious Remora?  
For whom shall I my Tears sad Tribute pay?  
For my Girl? Grandson? Husband? Country lost?  
Or for all these at once? or myself most?  
Whose only wish is Death. Cruel! thou highest  
To murder Infants; to young Virgins fliest:  
Each where mak'st haste to kill: But me alone  
Thou fear'st; and shun'st, though all night called upon  
'Mid'st Fire and Sword:— Nor Rage of hostile Powers,  
Nor Flames, nor Ruins of Troy's falling towers,  
One poor old Woman could dispatch. How nigh  
To thee, yet (Priam!) when thou fellest, stood I?   Nuncius. 

Away to Sea, ye Captives! now unmored  
The Greek Fleet hoises Sail: Hast, hast aboard.     
FINIS.   

A TABLE OF THE PRINCIPAL MATTERS IN THE ANNOTATIONS.  

A.  
ABraham's Intention in offering up of Isaac misinterpreted by the Heathens, and erroneously made the occasional Introduction of Humane Sacrifices. Pag. 37  
Achilles at his first Arrival at Troy, kills Cycnus. 21 

Slain by Paris. 23  
Honoured after Death with divine Rites. 43  
Concealed in Scyros among King Lycomedes his Daughters, in the Habit of a Virgin, and called Pyrrha. 24  
Takes Lesbos. Kills Trambelus. Lays Siege to Methymne, and causes Pisidice, who had betrayed the Town to him, to be stoned to death. 24  
Discovered in his disguise by the Stratagem of Ulysses. 25  
Wounds Telephus, and cures him. Pag. 26  
Takes Thebes, Lyrnessus. Chryse. Tenedos, Cille in his March to Troy. Kills Memnon, Hector, and Penthefil●…, p. 28, 29, 30, 31.  
His Character. 32  
His Lute. 39  
His Tomb not on the Rhetaean, but Sigaean Promontory, 113    
Act, a Promontory and City of Magnesia, 90  
Agamemnon and Menelaus, supposed Sons of Plisthenes, and not of Atreus. 43  
Ajax Oileus, ravishes Cassandra in the Temple of Minerva. 6  
Amyclae, a City of Laconia, at this day called Vordonia, or Vordona. 10 

Another in Italy, destroyed through the silence of its Inhabitants. ibid.    
Antenor's Wife. 9  
Argos, three Cities in Greece of that name. 94  
Ashes, strown upon the Heads of those that mourned for the Dead. 12  
Asia Minor, or Anatolia, its several Parts or Provinces. 2 

Under the Dominion of Priam. ibid.    
Assaracus, not the Son, but Brother to Ilus 4 

His Genealogy, according to Apollodorus and Conon. ibid.    
Atreus and Thyestes, the Crimes of their Families. 42 

Their Descent and Genealogy. 43     

B  
BEssa, a Town of the Locrians. 92 

Reason of its Denomination. ibid.    
Breasts beaten, a usual Expression of Funeral Sorrow. 13   

C  
CA●…vdnae, an Island in the Again Sea. 88 

Called likewise Calymna. ibid.  
Famous for Excellent Honey. ibid.    
Calydon, a City of Aetolia, where Diana was worshipped by the Name of Laphria. 91  
Calydonian Boar, his Tusks transported by Augustus Cesar to Rome. ibid. 

Extant in the time of Pausanias; one of them half an Ell in length. ibid.    
Captives, how ordered in the Triumphal Processions of the Ancients. 16  
Carystus, a Maritime City of Eubaea, famous for rich Marble Quarries. 87  
Cassandra, her Prophecies, forbidden by Apollo to be believed. 5 

The reason thereof.    
Caycus, a River of Mysia, its several ancient Names, its modern. Pag. 29  
Cephalenia, an Island under the Dominion of Ulysses. 60 

Called anciently Same, Samos, and Taphos. ibid.    
Chalcis, the Chief City of Eubaea, upon the Euripus. 87 

Whence so called. ibid.  
Called at present Negropont. ibid.  
The Original of that Name. ibid.    
Chiron, his Cell. 86 

Difference between Antrum, Caverna, and Spelunca. ibid.  
Which of these was Chiron's Cell. ibid.    
Chryse, a Town of Phrygia Minor, where Chryses the Priest of Apollo, and Father of Astynome, or Chrysis lived. 27 

Cause of Difference between Agamemnon and Achilles. ibid.    
Cybele, so called from the Mountain of that Name. ●…0  
Cycnus, the Son of Neptune, Slain by Achilles. Five of that Name famous in the Poetic Stories. 21   

D  
DAncing a part of the Religious Worship of the ancient Ethnics. 79  
Saltatio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Honour of Apollo described. ibid.  
Saltatio Coryb●…tia in Honour of Cybele the Phrygian Goddes●… ibid.   

E.  
EArthquake called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scu Mugiens. 20 

The cause thereof. ibid.    
Eleusis, a Maritime City of Attica, famous for the Temple of Ceres, and the Eleusinian Mysteries. 90  
Elysian Fields, where seated. 18 

Whence so called. ibid.    
Enispae, a City of Arcadia, or Phocis. 89  
Euripus, a Narrow strait between Boeotia and Euboea. 88 

Famous for its wonderful Tides, which see described. ibid.    
Eyes of the dying closed by those of their nearest Relations. 47   

F.  
FUneral Pile, the Custom or Ceremony of setting Fire to it. Pag. 49 

Funeral Torches, how made. ibid.  
Funeral, whence denominated. ibid.     

G.  
GIrton, a City of Macedonia, called at this day Tacchi volicati. 83  
Gods, why called Easie. 1  
〈◊〉, a City of Perhibea, or Promontory of Pellene. 89  
By Pausanias' called Donussa. ibid.  
Grecian Fleet, in the Expedition against Troy, of what Number of Ships. 34 

Computation of the Army transported in the said Ships. ibid. & pag. 35     

H.  
HAir, torn by those that mourned for the Dead. 12 

Hector Exemplary for his Piety as well as Valour. 18  
For which designed after death for the Islands of the Blessed. ibid.  
His fashion or manner of wearing his Hair peculiar. 56  
Imitated and affected by Caligula, Nero, and others of the Claudian Family. ibid.    
Hecuba, her Dream of being delivered of a Firebrand, when with Child with Paris. 5 

Her Death. 96  
Where buried. ibid.  
Her Monument called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. ibid.  
The Reason thereof. ibid.    
Helena Auspex at the Tragical Marriage of Polyxena. 98 

Compared to the Fowl called Crex, or the Daker Hen, ominous in Augury, especially as to Nuptials. ibid.  
Derivation of the Name Helena. 100  
Her proper Name Echo. ibid.  
Called likewise Leonia. ibid.  
Helenus' his Wife. 9     

I.  
Informer's and Calumniators, how punished by Titus and Trajan the Roman Emperors. Pag. 108  
jolcos', a City of Thessaly, at this day called jacco. 85 

Said (but erroneously) to have been the place whence jason and the Argonauts set Sail. ibid.  
Not a Port Town, but seated 30 Stadia within the Land. ibid.  
The Port belonging to it being Pagasae, the place where Argo was built. ibid.    
Ithaca, called a Rock, by way of Diminution. 96 

It's modern Name jatacho. ibid.  
Distant 6 or 7 Miles from Dulichium, which the modern Greeks now call Thiaki. ibid.    
jupiter Hercaus his Temple, the Sacrarium of Troy. 6 

The place where the Trojan Kings were inaugurated. ibid.  
At whose Altar Priam is said to have been slain. ibid.     

K.  
KNees, embraced by Suppliants. 72  
Reason of that Custom among the Ancients. ibid.   

L.  
LYrnessus, a City of Troas, the Birth-place of Hippodamia, or Briseis, Daughter of Briseus. 27   

M.  
MElibaea, a City, ennobled by the Birth of Philoctetes, to whom Hercules bequeathed his fatal Shafts that were to be employ'd against Troy. 8●…  
Memnon, Son of Tithon, (Priam's Brother) and Aurora, or of Titho●… and Cissia. 3●… 

Brought 10000 Aethiopians, and 10000 Susians, to the Relief of Troy. ibid.  
Slain by Achilles. Pag. 30  
Two of the same Name mentioned by Philostratus, the one an Aethiopian Prince, the other a Trojan. ibid.    
M●…don, a City of Peloponnesus, on the Borders of Messenia. 83 

By the Turks at this day called Moytune; being a Bishop's See, under the Archbishop of Patras. 84    
Mycenae, a City of Argis, the Birth place of Agamemnon. 95 

Whence so called. ibid.  
It's modern Names. ibid.     

N.  
NEritos, an Island not far from Ithaca and Zant. 95  
A Mountain of the same Name likewise in Ithaca. ibid.   

O.  
OLenos, a City of Achaia, thin Peopled; in Strabo's time totally deserted. 84  
Olympian Games. The Victors therein crowned with Wild Olive. 94 

In aftertimes with Crowns of Gold. ibid.  
Not known in Homer's time. ibid.    
Orestes, Son of Agamemnon, formerly called Achaeus. 163 

Born on the Feast-day of Ceres, surnamed Erinnys. ibid.  
Implying thereby that he should be vexed by Furies. ibid.     

P.  
Patroclus', slain in Achilles his Armour, by Euphorbus and H●…or, not without the assistance of Apollo. 55  
Pelion, the highest Mountain of Thessaly. 86 

It's Perpendicular height, according to the measure of Dicaearchus Siculus. ibid.    
Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons, slain by Achilles. 31 

Who seeing her dead Beauty became passionately in Love with her. ibid.    
Pepare●…us, an Island in the Aegean Sea, one of the Cyclades. It's modern Names. 89  
Pergamus, the Citadel of Troy. That Part which was more especially said to have been immured by the Gods. 4  
Phthia, a City and Region of Thessaly. Pag. 82 

Two Cities of that Name, one in Thessaly, the other in Achaia Phth●…otide. ibid.  
One the Birth-place and Principality of Achilles; the other under the Dominion of Protesilaus. ibid.    
Pisa, celebrated for the Temple of jupiter, and the Olympic Games. 93 

Destroyed by the Elaean's its Neighbour's. ibid.    
Pleuron, a City of Aetolia. There were two of the same Name, the Old and the New. 85 

At this day called Bozichistran. ibid.    
Praefica, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Chief of the Women Mourners, and Directress of the Lamentations made at the Funerals of the Dead. 11  
Priam his Sons and Daughters. 7 

Twice captived. 14  
Where and how slain. 15  
Called by Tiberius and Nero, The happiest of Men, for that he saw his Country and Kingdom destroyed with himself. 17  
His first Name Podarces.  
Whence called Priamus. ibid.    
Prothous, Commander of the Magnetians in the Trojan Wars. 86  
Pylos. Three Cities of that Name, each claiming to be the Country of Nestor. 93  
Pyrrhus, introduced by Seneca to personate Nero. 32   

R.  
RHet●…an Promontory 115   

S.  
SAlamis, or Salamine, an Island near the Athenian Coast. 91 

The Birth-place of Ajax. ibid.  
Called therefore Ajax his true Salamine, to distinguish it from the Cyprian Salamine, built by his Brother Teucer, which was called Ambiguous. ibid.  
Called at this day Coluri. ibid.    
Scaean Gate, why so called. 113  
Scarphe, a City of the Locrians. By Causabon conceived to be trulier called Tarphe. 92 

The reason of its Name. ibid.    
Scyros, an Island in the Aegean Sea, where Achisles was concealed by his Mother. Pag. 41 

A Stony Island, whence the Name seems to be derived. ibid.  
Scyrius Principatus meant of a mean and low Principality. ibid.    
Souls, by some of the Stoics supposed Mortal with the Body. 47 

By others of them believed to endure till the World's General Conflagration. ibid.  
The Life after separation from the Body miserable and painful. 48    
Sparta, or Lacedaemon, at this day called Mysithra. 94   

T.  
TAnais, mistaken by Seneca for Danubius. 3 

A common Error among the Romans. ibid.  
Reputed by some to have seven Mouths or Outlets, by some five, by others only two. ibid.    
Telemachus Son of Ulysses and Penelope. 66 

Signification of his Name. ibid.    
Tempe, its Description. Original of its Name. 82  
Thebes. Nine Cities of the same Name reckoned up by Stephanus de Urb. 27 

The Cilician Thebes the Country of Ection, Father of Andromache destroyed by Achilles. ibid.    
Thessaly, its Description, ancient and modern Names. 81 

Not known by that Name in the time of the Trojan Wars. ibid.    
Tigris erroneously said by Seneca to fall into the Erythraan or the Red Sea. 3 

Falls into the Persian Gulf. ibid.    
Titaressus, a River of Thessaly, that swims upon the River Peneus, without mingling his Waters. 92  
Trachyn, or Trachys, a City of Phocis according to Strabo, according to Stephanus of Thessaly; so called from the Asperity of its Situation. 82  
Tricca, a City of Thessaly. 83 

The Bishopric of Heliodorus, Author of the fair Aethiopian. ibid.    
Triones, Seven Stars in the Constellation of the Northern Bear. 54 

Why so called. ibid.  
Trio. A Surname to the Lucretian Family. ibid.    
Triton, half Man, half Dolphin. The Prime Marine Trumpeter, endued with Humane voice. 22  
Trason, a City in Peloponnesus, seated 15 Stadia from the Sea. 85 

It's Original. Famous for a fair Port under its Command called Portus Sarokicus & Pogonus. ibid.  
It's modern Names. ibid.    
Troy, why said to be built by Apollo and Neptune. Pag. 2 

What part of it more especially immured by the said Gods. 4  
The Number and Names of its Gates. 113  
The Game or Exercise called Troja. 78  
Different from the Pyrrhic Exercise or Measure. ibid.  
The Exercise of Torneaments, supposed by some to be thence derived. ibid.     

V.  
UR●…e. The Lots of Slaves and condemned Persons drawn out of an Urn. 8 

Called Hydria, Situla, and Sitella. ibid.  
Sortition by Lots drawn out of Urns threefold; Divisoria, Consultoria, Divinatoria. ibid.  
Urn of Destiny. ibid.  
Urns for conserving the Bones and Ashes of the Dead. 49  
Distinguished into Ossuaria, and Cineraria. ibid.     

Z.  
ZAnt, an Island in the Ionian Sea, lying against the Western Coast of Peloponnesus. 95   
FINIS.   

ERRATA.  
PAge 21. Line 5. read to. p. 27. l. 2. both fell. p. 43. l. 24. By that▪ p. 49. l. 3. S●…l ri●…g. I●…. l. 4. Or setting. p. 59 l. ult.. Let us. p. 78. l. 26. Wolfgangus. p. 82. l. 11. religi●…. p. 87. l. 1. 〈◊〉 p. 88 l. 27. A●…. p. 92. l. 21. &. p. 109. l. 7. Hell's.